UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BULLETIN 



New Series 



JULY, 1915 



VoLXII.No. 11 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY 



OF THE 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 

OF 

ASHLAND, OREGON 



imm^ 



Published monthly by the University of Oregon, and entered at the postoffice 
in Eugene, Oregon, as second-class matter. 



Itn.9grtpli 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY 



OF THE 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 

OF 

ASHLAND, OREGON 



FINAL REPORT, APRIL 15, 1915 



FRED C. AYER 

Professor of Education, u'niversity of Oregon, 

Director of the Survey 

CHARLES R. FRAZLER 
Superintendent of Schools, 'Everett, Washington ^ 

DON C. SOWERS 
Professor of Municipalities and Public Accounting, 
University of Oregon "^ 



Salem, Oregon : 

State Printing Department 

1915 



■ l\(o^^ 




TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE REPORT 

Page 

Introduction 5 

1. Letters of Transmittal 5 

2. Scope of the Survey 5 

Chapter I — Grounds, Buildings, and Equipment 7 

1. External Appearance 7 

2. Internal Appearance 7 

3. Fire Drills 10 

4. Sanitation 10 

5. Regulation of Noise from the Manual Training Rooms 10 

6. Special Data 11 

Chapter II— The Teaching Staff 12 

1. General Statement 12 

2. Training, Experience, and Retention 12 

3. Methods of Improvement 13 

4. Salaries of Teachers 14 

Chapter III — The Course of Study in Its Relation to the Educational 

Needs of Ashland 16 

1. The Community and the Public School Graduate 16 

2. Vocational Education 17 

Commercial Training 17 

Teacher Training 18 

Domestic Science and Normal Training 19 

Agriculture 20 

The Vocational Problem 20 

3. Physical Education 20 

Recess 20 

Athletics 21 

4. Incidental Civic Conditions 21 

Chapter IV — Instruction. Methods and Supervision 23 

1. General Methods and Results of Instruction 23 

2. Cooperative Supervision 25 

3. Departmental Instruction and Supervised Study 27 

Chapter V — Instruction. Special Tests 29 

1. Dictation Tests 29 

2. Tests in Spelling 32 

3. Tests of Handwriting 33 

4. Eighth Grade Examinations 36 

Chapter VI — Progress of Pupils 38 

1. Retardation 38 

2. Promotion 40 

3. Elimination 41 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



Page 
Chapter VII — Administrative Organization 43 

1. Organization of the School Board 43 

2. Financial Procedure 43 

3. Recording of Teachers' Certificates 45 

4. Payroll 45 

5. School Records at High School 46 

6. The Budget 47 

7. Record of Receipts 47 

8. Perpetual Inventory 49 

9. Annual Report 49 

Chapter VIII — Summary of Recommendations 51 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



INTRODUCTION 

1. LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL 

March 8, 1915. 
To THE Board of Education, 

Ashland, Oregon. 
Gentlemen: In response to your invitation issued through your 
Superintendent of Schools, Mr. George A. Briscoe, the undersigned 
committee has made a study of the Ashland Public Schools and submits 
its report herewith as follows. 

Signed : 

Fred C. Ayer, 
Charles R. Frazier, 
Don C. Sowers. 

To the Patrons of the Ashland Schools: 

The Committee for the Constructive Survey of the Ashland Public 
Schools wishes to assure you that your school system is rendering 
efficient and economical service. We believe that your sons and daughters 
are receiving excellent training. Moreover, the parents and taxpayers 
of Ashland are to be congratulated upon possessing a public school system 
of exceptional merit in spirit and practice. 

It should be remembered, however, that the standards of education 
are progressive and that the opportunities and demands of life daily 
grow more complex. It will not do to rest upon the oars now. We 
therefore urge you to be ever on the alert to keep your schools in the 
van of progress so that Ashland's greatest product, the coming genera- 
tion, will grow to its fullest fruition and yield returns in most abundant 
measure. 

2. SCOPE OF THE SURVEY 

The materials upon which the report of the committee is based have 
been gathered from various sources. During the year 1914 the superin- 
tendent of the Ashland schools under the direction of Professor Ayer 
of the University of Oregon (a member of the survey committee) made 
an exhaustive analytical survey and statistical report of the grounds, 
buildings, equipment, enrollment, distribution, teaching staff, and admin- 
istrative and instructional units and costs of the Ashland schools. In 
this work the forms used were those elaborated by Dr. J. F. Bobbitt 
of the School of Education, University of Chicago. 

This was followed by a detailed analytical study of promotion, 
retardation, and elimination in which, for the most part, the forms 
elaborated by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres of the Russell Sage Foundation 
were followed. 

Much credit must be given to this preliminary work on the part of 
Superintendent Briscoe in supplying data to the survey committee which 
has taken occasion to verify the authenticity of the statistics. 

Two members of the committee, C. R. Frazier, Superintendent of the 
Everett, Washington, Public Schools, and Fred C. Ayer, Professor of 
Education, University of Oregon, worked diligently for six days in a 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



personal examination of the Ashland system. After a preliminary 
survey of the entire system, daytimes were devoted to the collection of 
data, while evenings were given to joint analysis of the facts at hand. 
At all points the committee worked in cooperation and all differences 
of opinion, which were rare, have been excluded from the final report. 

Superintendent Frazier and Professor Ayer were joined the last two 
days by Don C. Sowers, Professor of Municipalities and Public Account- 
ing, University of Oregon, (formerly connected with the New York 
Bureau of Municipal Research), who made a special study of the business 
administration of the Ashland schools. 

The main report has been prepared and elaborated since the time of 
the local survey. Some of the students in Professor Ayer's advanced 
classes in education at the University of Oregon have assisted materially 
in judging and tabulating the results of some of the special tests of 
instruction. The committee has conscientiously endeavored to make the 
survey upon a scientific and impartial basis, and in their recommendations 
have constantly kept in mind the future needs of the Ashland schools 
in particular rather than school systems in general. 

The report represents the unanimous and unreserved opinions of all 
the members of the survey committee. No effort was made to make an 
exhaustive study of every phase of the Ashland school system but the 
time and attention of the committee were so distributed as to consider 
adequately the educational factors which seemed of greatest import to 
future constructive effort. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



CHAPTER I 
BUILDINGS, GROUNDS AND EQUIPMENT 

1. EXTERNAL APPEARANCE 

Ashland has three school buildings. The high school building, the 
newest of the three, has been in use for five years. It was erected at 
a cost of $75,000.00. It is a handsome building of unique construction 
and highly satisfactory in its arrangements. There are six acres in the 
high school grounds. Aside from standing room for the building, there 
is a school garden covering an acre and a half, an athletic field covering 
two acres and generous parking strips of lawn. 

The East and West grade schools are well housed in well kept brick 
buildings. The East School has three acres in grounds and the West 
School two acres. Portions of both these grounds are parked and the 
balance is devoted to playgrounds and athletics. Both grounds are 
equipped for baseball, basket ball, volley ball and tennis. Upon all 
three of these grounds very complete sprinkling systems have been 
established. 

It is evident that much thought and care have been expended upon the 
school buildings and grounds by the school authorities and that the work 
of the janitors at all three buildings is being thoroughly and conscien- 
tiously done. 

2. INTERNAL APPEARANCE 

Aesthetic surroundings have long been recognized as a prime agency 
in forming good taste and a discriminating appreciation of the beautiful. 
The natural environs of Ashland are a powerful asset in this direction. 
Moreover the school grounds and buildings of Ashland are uniformly 
artistic; indeed rather exceptional in this respect. Probably the most 
potent influence of static beauty upon school children lies in the decora- 
tions which ornament the walls and interiors of the rooms in which they 
spend a large share of their time. Conditions in the Ashland schools 
are variable in this respect, even within the same building. On the one 
hand we desire to commend very highly the admirable selection and 
. arrangement of pictures found in the high school assembly room. The 
aesthetic effect is unusually pleasing and can not fail to exert a powerful 
refining influence upon the pupils. 

On the other hand, while certain rooms in the grade buildings are 
artistically decorated, the colorless pi-ints and bleak photographs which 
hang upon the walls of many of the rooms are not of a nature to guide 
children to better standards of taste and appreciation of what is good 
design or artistic decoration. 

The committee recommends immediate attention to the interior deco- 
rations of the rooms of the grade buildings. We suggest that efforts 
be made to encourage various agencies to present good pictures, mural 
decorations, and pieces of sculpture to the schools. We also suggest 
that parents and friends make temporary loan of good examples of the 
spatial arts to the schools. We believe that this practice will result to 
Ashland children in a decided uplift in aesthetic appreciation. 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 




ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 




10 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



3. FIRE DRILLS 

The provision made for fire drills is commendable. A fire drill at 
the East School was given at the request of the committee which resulted 
in the emptying of the building of its 300 children in 58 seconds. The 
children had returned to their rooms, marching to music, and all 
doors were closed with classes ready to work within two and one-half 
minutes after the first alarm sounded. 



4. SANITATION 

In the grades hourly blackboard records of temperature are kept. In 
spite of these and other precautions we found so many instances in the 
different buildings of a temperature of 73 degrees or 74 degrees and even 
76 degrees that we believe the working efficiency of pupils and teachers is 
interfered with and we recommend that the temperature be kept at 
68 degrees as the standard with a permissible range of two degrees 
either way, and that means be found for making permanent a temperature 
between 66 and 70 degrees. 

We found the buildings clean and neat and that disinfectants are 
used frequently in corridors and toilets. In the East School the hallways 
and corridors are cold at all times. It would be an improvement if heat 
were provided so that pupils passing from class rooms to basement or 
from room to room would not experience too sudden changes in tempera- 
ture. We found in both grade buildings that the stalls in the toilets 
were not provided with doors. The advisability of providing doors for 
these stalls or of providing a sort of partition or screen, placed 3 or 
4 feet in front of these stalls is urged by the committee. The committee 
believes it is wise to conserve the natural sensitiveness of childhood. 
The objections made by social reformers do not hold, it seems to us, 
against our recommendation of having a partition or screen placed in 
front of these stalls. 



5. REGULATION OF NOISE FROM THE MANUAL 
TRAINING ROOM 

The manual training shops at the high school are placed in the 
basement. The class rooms meeting directly overhead are much disturbed 
froni the necessary noise arising from the operations of the manual 
training classes. This condition should be remedied either by providing 
very effective deadening for the floors above the manual training rooms 
or by moving the manual training work to special shop rooms to be 
constructed on the outside of the main building. Since it is only a 
question of a little time until the present high school building will be 
overcrowded, the committee is of the opinion that steps should be taken 
soon to provide a suitable frame building for the shopwork erected 
somewhere on the high school grounds. We further suggest that when 
this project is undei'taken, the boys who have had training in the manual 
training shops of the high school should be employed to do much of 
the work under the direction of an instructor or a master carpenter. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



11 



6. SPECIAL DATA 

The following data with reference to the buildings and grounds shows 
definitely the provisions that have been made for the Ashland schools 
together with certain items of cost valuable for comparison. 

East 
School 

Value of all science apparatus and equipment 

Value per pupil in average daily attendance 

Total No. hours janitor and engineer services per week.... 60 

Average No. pupils per hour, of service 6.8 

"Weekly cost per pupil 033 

Weekly cost per 1,000 sq. ft. floor space cared for 1.08 

Total No. hours per week building is used by pupils 

and community 37.5 

Cost of janitor service for each hour of use 36% 

Cost of janitor service each hour of use per 1,000 

cu. ft. of building space 0017 

Cost of fuel for each hour of pupils' and community's use .156 
Cost of fuel for each hour per 1,000 cu. ft. building space .00072 

Total cu. ft. of building space (used or usable) 215,740 

No. cu. ft. per pupil 523 

Size of school site in sq. ft 133,375 

Total outdoor play space in sq. ft 115,570 

Total school garden space in sq. ft 

No. sq. ft. per pupil 

No. toilet seats for boys 5 

No. toilet seats for girls 6 

No. times per year recitation rooms are scrubbed 2 

No. times per year windows are washed 3 

No. times per year walls are cleaned or brushed down.... 2 

No. times per week erasers are thoroughly cleaned by 

janitors 1 

Chalk ledges 1 

Blackboards sponged 1 

Total No. books in library 303 

No. books per child 1.7 

No. books of fiction 126 

No. books per child .3 

Total floor space in recitation rooms (not laboratories) 7,664 
No. sq. ft. per pupil 18.1 

Floor space of corridors 792 

No. sq. ft. per pupil 1.9 

Total window area in recitation rooms 996.8 

Total floor area in recitation rooms 5,694 

Ratio of window area to floor area .17 

No. of drinking fountains 4 

Average No. pupils to each drinking fountain 100 

No. stationary washbasins for pupils' use 4 

No. pupils per washbasin 100 



West 


High 


School 


School 




$1,300 




7.61 


60 


70 


6 


3.4 


.044 


.09 


.774 


.748 


37.5 


50.0 


.43 


.45 


.0011 


.00088 


.216 




.000597 




372,645 


508,372 


1,226 


2,117 


85,224 


267,320 


53,497 


173,938 




48,000 




200 


6 


8 


8 


8 


2 


2 


3 


3 


2 


2 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


495 


1,200 


1.3 


5 


145 


340 


.4 


1.4 


8,000 


7,000 


21.7 


29 


4,053 


5,000 


11 


21 


1,176 


1,000 


8,000 


5,000 


.22 


.20 


4 


4 


92 


60 


4 


16 


92 


15 



12 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



CHAPTER II 
THE TEACHING STAFF 

1. GENERAL STATEMENT 

In great part our description of instruction in a later chapter indicates 
the efficiency of the teaching staff of the Ashland schools. Favorable 
comment upon the type of instruction reflects favorably upon the 
teaching staff while the reverse is equally true. Nevertheless, whether 
instruction be good or bad, it is a matter of importance to note in so far 
as possible the peculiarities of the teaching staff which produces the 
results and to emphasize such characteristics as are seemingly related 
to good or bad teaching. 

The unanimous verdict of the survey committee is that the chief cause 
of the efficiency of the Ashland school system is to be found in its 
superintendent, George A. Briscoe. The more the committee has studied 
existing conditions the greater has become its admiration for the head 
of the Ashland schools. He is superintendent of the system in the 
fullest sense of the word. Quiet, dignified, considerate, we have found 
him master of every phase of administrative work with time left over 
to devote to class instruction and clerical duties. In short, the Ashland 
school system is a reflection of the personality of its most excellent 
superintendent. 

2. TRAINING, EXPERIENCE AND RETENTION 

Tables one and two present data which show the training and experi- 
ence of the grade and high school teachers. 

Table One — Training and Experience of Ashland High School Teachers. 



Teacher's Name 


Graduated High School 
When and Where 


a'i 


Yrs. 
University 

Yrs. 

Experience 
to 1914 

Yrs. in 
Ashland 
to 1914 


F. E. Moore, Prin 


Astoria, Oregon, 1903 

Peru, Nebraska, 1911 

Medford, Oregon, 1910 

Tabor, Iowa, 1905 



3 




1 
4 fi 


4 


Delmar C. Harmon 

Cordelia Goffe . 



4 
4 










Laura McCormlck 





*Otto Klum 


Asliland, Oregon, 1914 .. .. 


1^^ 1 2 

! 6 

1 1 1 

4 3 
4 


1 




Sterling, Nebraska 2 


4 


*Madge Eubanks .... 


Ashland, Oregon, 1911 

Denver, Colorado, 1908 

Eugene, Oregon, 1910 

Providence, Kentucky, P)10 
New Albany, Indiana, 1907 
Bdgington, Illinois, 1908 .... 
Marengo, Indiana, 1887 








2 


1 


W. Hassinger 


2 


G. M. Ruch 





L. T. Hodge 


2% 
4 

2% 
5 


4 
8 
2 





C. Kennard 


6 


Anne B. Harris 


i) 


Geo. A. Briscoe, Supt. ... 


22 


4 



* Graduates of local high school. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



13 



TABI.E Two — Training and Experience of Ashland Elementary School Teachers. 


Teacher's Name 


Graduated from High School 
When and Where 


Yrs. 

Normal 

Training 


, > 


o 
a 
« 




G. W. Milam, Prin 


Drippery Springs Academy, 
Texas, 1886 . .. 


2 
2 
6 
2 
2 
3 
1 
4 
2 

21/2 



1 
2 

2 
1 
2 




3 

% 



1 
1 





1 






1 




2 


22 

15 

4 

4 

3 

6 

6 

8 

2 

1 

8 

8 

10 

1 

6 

8 

13 

15 

6 


12 


*G. Engle . . 


Ashla'nd, Oregon, 1898 


12 




2 


N. B. Ross 


Ft. Morgan, Colorado, 1908 

Ashland, Oregon, 1909 

Adams, Nebraska, 1905 .... 
Spencer, Indiana, 1906 


1 


*B. Eliason 





B. Dunham 


2 




1 


M. Johnson 


2 


M. M. Muir ... 


Portland Academy, 1908 .... 

Attended 3 years 

Storm Lake, Iowa, 1906. .... 

Ashland, Oregon, 1905 

2 years in Ashland 

Ashland, Oregon, 1911 

Ashland, Oregon, 1908 

St. Louis, Missouri, 1907 .... 
McMlnnville, Oregon, 1903 

Cliariton, Iowa, 1896 

Ulysses, Nebi-aska, 1905.... 










S. Brown 


4 


*E. Foley 


4 


*E. Hurley 


5 


*C. Morehouse 





*B. Caldwell 


4 


A. Thompson . 


3 


G. Updegraf 


5 


I. M. Myers 


12 


J. Creekpaum 


2 



* Graduates of local high school. 

The two tables show that the teachers of the Ashland schools are 
well prepared by way of training and experience, averaging well above 
the mean found in cities of similar size in the west. Including all 
subjects the average length of training of the high school teachers is 
over 3% years beyond the high school, while in every instance save one 
the standard subjects are taught by university graduates with profes- 
sional training. The medium length of experience for the high school 
teachers is four years. This is the same as found in the high schools 
of the middle west belonging to the North Central Association of 
Colleges and Secondary Schools. One-half of the high school teachers 
are new this year in Ashland. This is an undesirable situation but is 
caused partly by the addition of new departments. School work is 
carried on to greater advantage from year to year by slight changes 
in the teaching staff, rendering as little readjustment necessary as 
possible and permitting increasing accommodation to the local environ- 
ment on the part of the retained instructors. Conditions are bad in 
this respect in schools throughout the country, two years being the 
median term of tenure in similar North Central high schools, although 
about 40 per cent of the teachers stay three or more years. 

The committee recommends that the present high school staff with 
possibly one or two exceptions be retained for several years and that 
future changes occur as gradually as financial pressure will permit. 

In point of training, experience, and local retention the teaching staff 
of the elementary schools is commendable. There is a conspicuous 
absence of untrained teachers, while the average experience (seven and 
two-thirds years) and the average local retention (three and three - 
fourths years) are unusually high. 



3. METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT 

The survey committee made careful inquiry into the methods of 
improvement which were being used by the Ashland teachers. They 
were questioned as to magazines and books read (both pedagogical and 



14 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

general), teachers' meetings and institutes attended, correspondence 
work, summer schools and special courses attended, and plans for self- 
improvement. The committee found much to commend. Practically every 
teacher is endeavoring to better his or her ability as a teacher, both by 
reading and by attendance at higher institutions of learning. One rather 
serious drawback in this respect for those who plan to remain progressive 
teachers is the general lack of records of methods and progress. Few 
of the teachers keep records of their plans and methods of teaching, 
depending upon the text-books or course of study to supply the organiza- 
tion and stimulus for preparation of lessons from year to year. 

The committee believes that a permanent written record of such 
items as references, materials and methods used, successes and failures 
of attempted plans, when and where to get teaching accessories, and 
similar notes of class-room procedure will prove of great value to the 
growing teacher and we urge more general use of what may be called 
a diary of plans and progress. It is suggested in this connection that 
several of the teachers may well take account of their own grammar and 
pronunciation. 

We have described the spirit of cooperation in another part of the 
report but it seems proper to emphasize here the esprit de corps of the 
Ashland body of teachers. The spirit of a "common cause" is every- 
where present and whether it be athletic, academic, social, or cultural 
function, mutual friendship and common endeavor prevail and present 
ample evidence of their ultimate worth. 

4. SALARIES OF TEACHERS 

The schedule of salaries for the elementary teachers is as follows: 

Flr.st Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year 

$65.00 $70.00 $72.50 $75.00 

The high school schedule begins at $80.00 and reaches the maximum 
of $90.00 the third year. There is no schedule for principals or superin- 
tendents. At present the superintendent receives $1,800 annually. How 
this compares with the salaries of superintendents in other cities in the 
first class districts of Oregon outside of Portland is shown in Table 3. 
Ashland ranks twelfth in total enrollment and is tied with three other 
cities for thirteenth position in size of superintendent's salary. 

Table Threk— Enrollment and Superintendents' Salaries !?i Oregon First-class 

Districts. 

Enrollment, 1913-14 Superintendents' Salaries 

1. Salem 3306 1. Salem $2,750 

2. Eugene 2635 2. Eugene 2,700 

3. Astoria 1727 3. Baker 2,400 

4. Medford 1584 3. La Grande 2.400 

5. Baker 1556 3. Pendleton 2,400 

6. La Grande 1450 6. Astoria 2,100 

7. Albany 1292 7. Albany 2,000 

3. Corvallis 1238 7. McMinnville 2,000 

9. Roseburg 1152 7. Medford 2,000 

10. Pendleton 1096 7. The Dalles 2,000 

11. St. Johns 1067 11. St. Johns 1,950 

12. Ashland 1034 12. Oregon City 1,900 

13. Oregon City 1015 13. Ashland 1,800 

14. The Dalles 1009 13. Corvallis 1,800 

15. Newberg 913 13. Grants Pass 1,800 

16. Klamath Falls 899 13. Klamath Falls 1,800 

17. Grants Pass 845 17. Roseburg 1,500 

18. McMinnville 830 18. Newberg 1,350 

19. Dallas 670 19. Dallas 1,200 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



15 



Ashland pays its high school principal $1,250 annually and its grade 
principals $1,000 annually. Table 4 shows how this compares with similar 
salaries in other Oregon first-class districts. As against twelfth in 
enrollment, Ashland is thirteenth in salary of high school principal and 
seventh in salary of grade principal. 

Ashland pays to its high school teachers an average annual salary of 
$742 and to its grade teachers an average annual salary of $630. Table 5 
shows that Ashland ranks seventeenth in average high school salary and 
twelfth in average grade salary. 



Table Four — Salaries of Principals in Oregon First-class Districts. 



1, 
2. 
3, 
4. 
4, 
4. 
4. 
4. 
4. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

15. 

17. 

18. 

19. 



High School Principal's Salary- 
Eugene $2,000 

Klamath Falls 1,800 

Salem 1,600 

Pendleton 1,500 

Astoria 1,500 

The Dalles 1,500 

Medford 1,500 

Corvallis 1,500 

Roseburg 1,500 

St. Johns - 1,400 

La Grande 1,350 

Albany 1,300 

Ashland 1,250 

Baker 1,215 

Oregon City 1,200 

McMinnville 1,200 

Newberg 855 

No principal 

No principal 



Elementary School Principal's Salary 

1. Eugene $1,200 

2. Oregon City 1,150 

3. St. Johns 1,092 

4. Astoria 1,050 

5. Salem 1,043 

6. Medford 1,025 

7. Ashland 1,000 

8. Roseburg 967 

9. The Dalles 900 

10. Baker 855 

11. Pendleton 855 

12. Corvallis 825 

13. Albany 795 

14. Klamath Falls 788 

15. La Grande 780 

16. Newberg 765 

17. Grants Pass - 765 

18. McMinnville 700 

19. Dallas 585 



Table Five — Average Salaries of Teachers in Oregon First-class Districts. 



Average Salary Grade Teacher 

1. Oregon City $ 879 

2. The Dalles 764 

3. St. Johns 760 

4. Astoria 750 

5. Eugene 731 

6. Salem 723 

7. La Grande 715 

8. Pendleton 701 

9. Klamath Falls 686 

10. Medford 678 

11. Albany 676 

12. Ashland 630 

13. Baker 630 

14. Roseburg 621 

15. Corvallis 615 

16. Grants Pass 591 

17. McMinnville 585 

18. Dallas 540 

19. Newberg 514 



Average Salary High School Teacher 

1. Klamath Falls $1,299 

2. La Grande 1,069 

3. The Dalles 1,009 

4. St. Johns 1,007 



5. Medford .. 

6. Pendleton 
6. Baker 

8. Astoria 

9. Salem 

10. Eugene .... 

11. Roseburg 



9 88 
971 
971 
942 
935 
909 
905 



12. Albany 837 

13. Corvallis 

14. Grants Pass 

15. Oregon City 

1 6. McMinnville 

17. Ashland 

IS. Dallas 



815 
808 
806 
765 
742 
698 
19. Newberg 698 

The committee believes that the city of Ashland is getting full 
measure for money paid to its teaching staff. While its salary budget 
is not as heavy as in many other first-class districts, it is undoubtedly 
true that this deficiency is made up by the vigor and discrimination 
with which the superintendent seeks out new teaching talent, a condition 
made possible by the commendable non-interference of the school board. 
In this respect there is a desirably limited number of local graduates in 
the teaching staff, all of whom have taken work elsewhere and who are 
well up to the average of the entire group of teachers. 

The committee does not recommend a general increase in salaries at 
present, but it suggests to the board the advisability of making occasional 
specific increases to the best members of the teaching staff rather than 
lose them to other districts. 



16 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

CHAPTER III 

THE COURSE OF STUDY IN ITS RELA- 
TION TO THE EDUCATIONAL 
NEEDS OF ASHLAND 

1. THE COMMUNITY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 
GRADUATE 

Each community presents its own educational problems. In attempt- 
ing to get some light upon the needs of Ashland from the standpoint of 
the pupils themselves, certain information was collected from the members 
of the senior class in the high school and from members of the eighth 
grade classes. From this it would appear that the population of Ashland 
does not fluctuate seriously. Of the 42 members of the senior class, 
including those doing post-graduate work, only eight have attended 
school in Ashland less than four years, and 34 have attended school in 
Ashland four or more years. 

These pupils were asked what they expected to do next year. To 
this 12 replied that they expected to attend college or university, seven 
expect to do post-graduate work in the local high school, six expect to 
work and some of these are working with a view to gaining funds for a 
future education. Two expect to attend normal school, seven expect to 
teach and eight were uncertain. To the question, "Have you definitely 
decided on a life occupation?", 15 replied "Yes," 24 replied "No," and 
three gave a qualified answer. An opportunity was given for those who 
were in doubt to express what they now considered their preference of 
occupation. These preferences, including those who answered positively 
are as follows: Teaching 16, business 5, agriculture 2, engineering 2, 
and one each cartooning, civil service, law, librarian, draftsman, artist, 
physician, metal worker, stenographer, journalist; and one expressed the 
intention of trying several things. Also six expressed themselves as 
doubtful. To the question, "Do you expect to make Ashland your future 
home?", 22 answered "No," 12 "Yes," and 8 were doubtful. 

Those who expect to remain in Ashland gave several reasons reflect- 
ing intense loyalty and pride in the community, some saying, "It is the 
best place in the world," others expressing confidence as to its future 
when the spring^^ are developed. Of those who do not expect to make 
their future home in Ashland, several gave as their reason that there 
were no occupational opportunities or that there were no opportunities 
for their particular line of work. 

The statistics obtained from the eighth grade class will not be given 
in detail as they have the same general tendencies. 73 of the 76 expect 
to be in school next year. The other three expect to work. 16 have 
already decided to become teachers, 10 to become farmers, 5 engineei's, 
5 will enter business, 6 nursing, and 18 occupations claimed from one 
to four each. 43 out of the 76 expressed themselves as not definitely 
decided upon an occupation. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 17 

There is no one large industry in this community attracting young 
people in large numbers. There is a population above the average in 
intelligence and a large appreciation, both on the part of parents and 
children, of the advantages of a good general education. So far as the 
young people have shown an inclination towards their future occupations, 
the figures point quite overwhelmingly toward the occupations in which 
a good general education is essential. 

Basing our opinion upon the character of the population, the limited 
industrial opportunities and the bent and inclination of the pupils them- 
selves, we feel convinced that the main effort of the educational authori- 
ties in Ashland should be directed toward maintaining strong courses in 
so-called academic branches with fundamentals, character, mental disci- 
pline and culture as the chief aims. There are, however, other educational 
needs so fundamentally important in the community that they should be 
considered as almost equally important with the foregoing. We refer to 
physical education and industrial education. These are discussed below. 
Important as it is that those who are to go into the professions and into 
business and technical occupations calling for extensive preparatory 
education should be provided for, there is also an imperative demand 
that those who would enter the so-called humbler occupations should 
have provision made for their specific needs. 

The fact that twenty-seven of the forty-two high school seniors and 
forty-three of the seventy-six eighth grade pupils are still very much 
in doubt as to their preferences for an occupation seems to argue for 
some sort of provision for vocational guidance in order that the choice 
of an occupation may be intelligently made when the time comes. 

While following the State Course of Study as a general guide, there 
is much evidence that the Ashland course has been worked out with the 
particular needs of Ashland young people in mind. 



2. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

Under this caption we include a discussion of the commercial work 
in the high school, the teacher training course, and the industrial work 
carried on in both grades and the high school. 

Commercial Training. — The commercial work in the high school 
includes a one-year course each in bookkeeping, typewriting, shorthand, 
penmanship and spelling, with an additional year each in bookkeeping 
and shorthand. Students are, under certain circumstances, permitted 
to double up on commercial work and take a two-year course. At the 
present time there are 31 eni-olled in bookkeeping, 28 in shorthand, 
78 in typewriting, while over 100 are taking penmanship and spelling. 

There probably are in the city of Ashland 25 positions for stenogra- 
phers and 15 positions for bookkeepers. It would therefore seem that 
possibly this branch of work is being overdone and that many of the 
young people will be disappointed. Upon inquiring among the students 
the committee learned that many of the students look upon this work 
as a stepping-stone to some other occupation. Some count on making 
use of it while doing college work and others are looking toward the 
civil service. However, we believe that the school authorities will be 



18 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

justified in hedging about to a certain extent the privilege of taking 
these courses. For instance, excellent preparation in penmanship should 
be a prerequisite for bookkeeping and an inquiry into the purpose of 
each applicant might well be made to prevent pupils enrolling in type- 
writing because it is new or attractive and without a more serious 
purpose. The equipment and character of the work being done in 
this department justifies us in saying that the department is meeting 
a real vocational end and meeting it in a good way. 

Teacher Training.— The chief vocational activity of the Ashland 
schools is devoted to the Teachers' Training Course which, therefore, 
merits specific treatment in the report. The emphasis given to this 
course relates directly to the vocational opportunities of the community. 
Twelve of the graduates of the high school Normal Training Course in 
1914 are now teaching at salaries ranging from $55 to $80 per month. 
Teaching careers lead as the choice of both high school students and 
eighth grade pupils. The Oregon school law provides that a one-year 
State certificate (renewable only once) shall be granted without exami- 
nations to applicants who have completed four years' work in an 
accredited high school upon completion of the teachers' training course. 

Among other requirements, the law provides that the course in 
Teachers' Training shall consist of: 

(a) A review of at least nine weeks each in reading, grammar, 
arithmetic, and geography. 

(b) A study of American history. 

(c) At least twenty periods of professional training to include a 
study of methods, school management, and observation work. 

The class is also required to take elementary agriculture, spend at 
least one hour a day for at least sixteen weeks in observation and practice 
work, and such other work as the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
may require. This regime has been somewhat modified in practice by 
the interpretation of the State Superintendent, but in spirit is carried 
out both in the superintendent's instructions and by the Ashland schools. 

One year in civics and American history is required and may be 
taken in the junior year. One and one-half units of professional training 
are required in the senior year. This embraces the following three 
courses, each the equivalent of one-half a unit, i, e., one-fourth of the 
student's entire work for one-half of one year: 

(1) Methods, school management, etc. (a) Nine weeks' work follow- 
ing Strayer's "Brief Course" and O'Shea's "Everyday Problems." (b) Nine 
weeks' work in Oregon school law and history of education, (lectures 
from Monroe) . 

(2) Professional reviews. (a) Nine weeks, Watson and White's 
Complete Arithmetic, all topics not exempted by State in eighth grade 
examinations, (b) Nine weeks, Kimball's Elementary English, Book II. 

(3) Observation and practice teaching. Fifteen weeks in the elemen- 
tary grades. In connection with (3), the first two days in each week 
are given to observation of the work of a regular teacher, the second 
two days to teaching, and the fifth day to writing a report. Lesson 
plans must be submitted in advance which are satisfactory to the 
regular teacher, and cadet teachers must do standard teaching or with- 
draw from the course. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 19 

Wherever normal school or university training is beyond the reach 
of prospective teachers, the committee recommends the high school 
training course. We believe that the Ashland course is well arranged 
and efficiently administered. The hearty cooperation of the grade 
principals and teachers greatly strengthens the local course. The course, 
moreover, meets a present vocational demand and, in our opinion, is 
decidedly superior as a criterion for certification to the examination 
system also in operation in the State of Oregon. 

The high school training course is an agency adapted to the training 
of rural teachers and its completion should not certify graduates to 
teach in city schools or in one, two or three-year high schools. We 
advise prospective teachers who plan to take advanced work in a Normal 
School or in a university to defer the professional training until they 
reach such institution. This will add approximately two units to the 
cultural work in the high school and permit the student to take his 
professional training at a more mature age. 

At present there is but a single normal school in Oregon, which is 
situated at Monmouth. The Monmouth Normal is so far distant from 
the counties of Southern Oregon that only a few students are attracted 
fi'om this region. Some years ago there was also a normal school at 
Ashland which was legislated out of existence. The buildings still remain 
but are vacant. In light of the numbers of possible teachers to be 
trained in Southern Oregon and who are now receiving limited training, 
the committee desires to go on record as favoring the re-establishment 
of a State normal school at Ashland. 

Domestic Science and Manual Training. — All the girls in the 
sixth and seventh grades are enrolled in sewing classes and all the girls 
in the first year of high school do sewing with their regular course. 
In addition to this a one-year elective course is offered. A minimum of 
time is spent upon working models and the classes are wisely, we think, 
set at work early upon useful articles. The courses are logically arranged 
and are being well carried out. During the first year of high school 
these girls make one complete outfit of underwear, two dresses, have 
some work in crocheting, some fancy work, draft patterns and do fitting. 
The second year they study household decoration, make a study of 
materials and make a tailored suit. 

Cooking is taught to all eighth grade girls and to all girls in second 
year of high school with one additional year elective. The accom.moda- 
tions of cooking and sewing in the high school are not adequate to the 
real needs of the large classes. As it is, much of the work has to be 
done by girls sitting in ordinary recitation chairs without tables, there 
being insufficient room for the tables. The cooking department could 
make use of a dining room, although the present arrangement by which 
one of the sewing rooms is used for a dining room is not a serious 
handicap. 

Manual training is taught in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades 
and for two years in the high school. The work is confined to wood 
work and drawing. The interest in the classes seems to be good. The 
boys are allowed much choice as to the articles which they shall make 
and this tends to keep the interest high. There seems to the committee 
to be a lack of real vocational purpose in this department and we believe 



20 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

that boys should be encouraged to master the elements of the carpenter's 
trade, cabinet maker's trade or other wood working trades, and that 
definite undertakings should be launched from time to time in more 
pretentious constructive work. It is entirely possible for two or three 
groups of boys to be working at the same time on different courses, 
some taking conventional manual training work, some working toward 
carpentry, others toward furniture making, etc., all being directed by 
the same instructor. Excellent work is being done in mechanical drawing 
in connection with this department. 

Agriculture. — In agriculture the Ashland schools are complying with 
the State requirement that agriculture shall be taught in the eighth 
grade. This course is organized with the manual training course in such 
a way that a portion of the students are working in the school gardens 
while others are working in the shop. The boys are permitted to have 
what they raise and are encouraged to develop gardens of their own at 
home. There is also a high school course in agriculture covering one 
semester. This course is based upon a text, is taught in the laboratory 
and is supplemented by work in the high school garden. Instruction is 
given by the regular biology teacher. 

The Vocational Problem. — The problem in vocational work in 
Ashland is not the same that would be encountered in an industrial center. 
Nevertheless, Ashland has its vocational needs and while the committee 
has nothing but praise for the development that has been made in 
providing for these needs, we desire to recommend that the vocational 
aim be made more pronounced in the shop work. The agricultural work 
should be placed upon a firm basis with the supervision of home gardens, 
and poultry raising clubs on the part of boys and girls from both grades 
and high school made a prominent feature. We recommend that wherever 
possible the boys taking the manual training course be given work on 
the making of furniture, running partitions, doing repair work or 
erecting buildings, for the schools. This will afford excellent educational 
opportunities for such boys. 

3. PHYSICAL EDUCATION 

Making a study of the physical education in the Ashland schools, the 
committee found that no supervisor or special teacher was employed 
for this work. 

In the Grades. — The teachers are directed to give calisthenic exer- 
cises when children show evidence of fatigue or restlessness. As a 
matter of fact, we find, upon investigation, that while teachers mean 
to conscientiously carry out this plan, in many rooms these exercises 
are not given with regularity or, indeed, with frequency. A teacher 
interested in her work and pressed for time to accomplish results is 
not always conscious of this need. 

Recess. — The morning session begins at 8:45 and continues until 
11:30, when an intermission of an hour and a half is given. The after- 
noon session continues from 1:00 until 3:40. These sessions are broken 
by short rest periods of not exceeding five or six minutes. The pupils 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 21 

pass out or to the basement but no play or physical exercise is indulged 
in during this rest period. No other recess is provided for in the grades. 
The advisability of a so-called wild recess in the grades is perhaps 
debatable. The committee is inclined to favor such a recess about the 
middle of each school session but recognizes the fact that it is perhaps 
more or less a local question. The committee is emphatic in recommend- 
ing that in the absence of a recess there should be from five to ten 
minutes of vigorous, enjoyable calisthenic exercises about the middle 
of each session regularly or a run into the open air for a similar length 
of time. We also recommend that during all or part of such time the 
windows of each room be thrown open so as to thoroughly flush the 
class rooms with fresh air from the outside. If at a given signal, the 
windows are thrown open in all the rooms at once it will not interfere 
with the ventilating system and if the windows are not kept open too 
long it will not cool the walls sufficiently to prove an extravagance 
in the matter of fuel. 

High School. — The high school is fortunate in having a gymnasium, 
size 57x90 feet, well adapted for carrying on systematic instruction in 
physical education and also well adapted for basketball, volley ball, and 
indoor baseball. At the present time no class work in the gymnasium is 
undertaken but large use is made of the gymnasium in connection with 
the athletic activities of both boys and girls. It would seem to the 
committee that the next step in physical education would be to make 
provision for class instruction in gymnasium work and at the same time 
provision should be made for supervision of physical training in the 
grade schools. A physical training teacher or supervisor who appreciates 
the possibilities of this kind of work can be of great assistance, not only 
in improving the bearing and physical health of the children, but in 
quickening their mental and moral activity. 

Athletics. — The committee found that both in the grades and high 
school the athletic activities of boys and girls were wisely encouraged. 
In the grades, baseball, basketball, volley ball and tennis, with the 
running games for little folks, such as blackman, tag, etc., are being 
played under the direction and supervision of principals and teachers. 
In each grade building two teachers assist in this work both noon and 
evening. In the high school, football, basketball, tennis, baseball, and 
the various track events are being carried on under faculty supervision 
and direction. The spacious grounds referred to in the chapter on 
buildings and grounds are a great boon to these activities in both the 
high school and grades. 

4. INCIDENTAL CIVIC CONDITIONS 

From the chief of police it was learned that during the past two 
years two juvenile offenders have been sent to the State Training or 
Reform School. At one time during 1914, eighteen different boys were 
on probation making regular reports, most of them having been in an 
escapade not of a really criminal nature. There have been some cases 
of stealing during the past two years. These boys who have been in 
the hands of the police for stealing, truancy or depi'edations and 



22 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

escapades have, so the chief of police testifies, always spoken highly 
of their teachers and the schools. At the time of this investigation no 
juveniles vi^ere on probation and no cases of truancy have been reported 
during the current school year. All the evidence obtained from this 
investigation indicates that the schools are gaining a stronger and 
stronger hold on the boys and are doing all that can be reasonably 
expected of them in this respect. 

Interviews were had with several mothers and several business men. 
Without exception these spoke in the highest terms of appreciation of 
the schools, expressing the greatest confidence in the school board, 
superintendent and teachers. Upon being pressed for suggestions as 
to how the schools might be improved, several suggestions were made. 
One thought that there was not enough analysis of problems in the 
intermediate grades. Another thought high school pupils were worked 
too hard. One mother expressed some disappointment that her boy did 
not get a great deal of good from one certain subject but was working 
hard and doing well in other subjects. One mother considered the history 
work too difficult in the fifth grade. One mother, prominent in the 
Parent-Teachers Association work, expressed herself in much the same 
way as Superintendent Briscoe expressed himself to the effect that the 
Parent-Teachers Association did good but failed to reach the parents 
who would be most benefited. 

One mother was very strongly of the opinion that the children without 
home conditions where it was possible for them to receive some help in 
their studies could not be adequately taken care of in the schools as now 
constituted. She considers that not only the Ashland schools but schools 
generally are inadequate in meeting the needs of the children that cannot 
have the work of the school supplemented by assistance at home. This is 
food for thought and a recommendation contained elsewhere in this 
report if carried out would make provision for auxiliary work done by 
regular teachers with such pupils as need it in every room while special 
teachers of music and drawing have charge of their rooms. The idea 
of having more physical training in the schools and of no recesses met 
the approval of the parents questioned upon this matter. 

An excellent plan of cooperation between the city library and the 
Ashland schools is in operation. A written contract exists between the 
two institutions according to the terms of which the district pays the 
city library a certain sum each year, of which a portion is to be spent 
for children's books and the remainder to be used to pay the expense 
of cataloging and repairing the books in the school libraries. The 
teachers are permitted to draw any reasonable number of books from 
the library and take them to their schools for the use of the children. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 23 

CHAPTER IV 

INSTRUCTION, METHODS AND 
SUPERVISION 

The actual vitality of a school system varies directly with the quality 
of its instruction. The structure of a school system is important because 
it supports and renders possible the functioning processes within, but in 
itself is no guarantee of life and activity. Teaching is the life blood 
of the educational process and the measurement of the daily current of 
instruction is the surest index of the virility of the entire system. The 
committee has, therefore, given the largest share of its attention to the 
factor of instruction. 

1. GENERAL METHODS AND RESULTS OF 
INSTRUCTION 

On the first day of the survey the members of the committee in 
company with Superintendent Briscoe visited each class room in the 
two grade buildings and all but three of the high school teachers. These 
short visits were followed on the following days by at least one longer 
visit to each class room, the members of the committee working separately. 
These visits were made delightful by the uniform courtesy of the super- 
intendent, principals and teachers, by the manifest devotion of teachers 
to their tasks, and by the wholesome cheerful atmosphere of work 
prevailing in the system as a whole. 

Teaching the Child.^ — ^While the Ashland schools are conforming to 
the requirements of their local course of study and to the State require- 
ments, which apply to certain districts of the first class, it is the opinion 
of the committee that it would be unfair to say that the Ashland 
teachers were teaching subject-matter rather than children. Teachers 
are aware of the child's viewpoint, adapting their instruction to the 
individual pupils in a way which shows real sympathetic insight into 
the workings of the child's mind. These characteristics stand out in the 
work of teachers both in the grades and high school. 

One of the evidences of this is the manner of criticizing imperfect 
recitations in such a way as to encourage and inspire to better efforts 
rather than to discourage or humiliate. Out of several similar instances 
two are here cited to illustrate how this is done. In a second grade a 
boy misspelled "thirsty" and had to go from midway to the foot of the 
class. The teacher remarked kindly, "Go down now but next time you 
will get it." A moment later she selected this same boy and one other 
pupil to play a prominent part in the class going to the blackboard to 
point out words. 

The members of a high school class in English Composition, working 
under a really excellent assignment, were reading original stories based 
on a previously approved original plot. One pupil read a story which 
left his hero a pretty ordinary character with much to condemn and 



24 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

little to admire. The language was rather stilted. The teacher, instead 
of telling him he had written a poor story or in any way inciting a 
derisive attitude in the class, said, "I don't believe I quite understand 
the meaning of some of your hero's actions in the last part of the story 
but you can explain that to me when we look your paper over together. 
Do you think your language was sufficiently different from the language 
of the plot?" Pupil, "No Ma'am." Further adroit but kindly questioning 
made the pupil aware of exact weakness of his story and left him 
anxious to improve it. The way was thus prepared for a helpful, 
sympathetic conference with the pupil later. 

This rational and sympathetic appreciation of the pupils' point of 
view is commended. It should, however, be remembered that this attitude 
is not inconsistent with a policy of exacting a definite compliance with 
the requirements of a high standard of excellence in work and indeed 
it is evident that most of the Ashland teachers are conscious of both 
ideals. 

School Spirit. — Among the notable results attending the class room 
instruction upon which the committee feels justified in speaking positively 
is an intangible something which might be called the Spirit of the School. 
The spiritual product is large. There is a cheerfulness and a joy in 
work, a fullness of life and a contentedness evidenced in almost every 
room in the Ashland schools. Interest in work and an almost entire 
absence of any "problem of discipline" tend to confirm the minds of the 
members of the committee in the belief that the "Spirit of the School" 
above referred to is a very real as well as a very valuable product of 
the school. 

Fundamentals, Reading. — The practical subjects of writing, spelling, 
arithmetic, and reading are being well taken care of. One class that had 
just finished the second grade read such words as professor, Oxford, 
awkward, pretending, etc., as they appeared in the context without any 
hesitation but rather with fluency. A class that had just finished 
first grade and been two weeks in the second grade read from the 
blackboard the following sentences furnished the teacher by a member 
of the committee, "Mr. Briscoe is superintendent of the Ashland schools," 
"Mr. Engle is president of the First National Bank." 

These sentences were read by several members of the class with no 
assistance whatever, the pupils interpreting the difficult words by 
silently sounding them out. The same test was given another class of 
the same grade in another building with equally good results. Several 
tests made in these and other grades confirmed the committee in the 
opinion that the power which the children in these schools are gaining 
over new words is all that could be expected or desired. We do not 
advise attempting to improve the record now being made in this respect, 
believing that such effort would result in crowding the children too hard. 
Indeed, there is serious question if the course of study being followed 
in the first grade at the present time does not result in rather too much 
crowding for children of six years of age. The work necessary in 
carrying out the assignment in the State course of study interferes rather 
seriously with the freedom of the teacher in adapting subject matter for 
blackboard reading to the needs and interests of the particular classes. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 25 

The committee wishes to express approval of the rich supply of 
reading matter provided for the grades and also of the amount of 
reading done by each class. The class vi^hich has just finished the 
first grade has read six primers and three first readers. This is an 
excellent record as to amount of reading to be done the first year, 
especially considering the difficulty of one or two of the books read. 
We recommend that emphasis be laid upon silent as well as upon oral 
reading. The power to get thought rapidly and silently from a printed 
page is in everyday life a more important acquisition than oral reading. 
This is not said to indicate that less emphasis should be placed upon 
oral but rather that more emphasis be placed on silent reading, 
especially in the upper grades. In this connection the committee desires 
to commend the plan of having both oral and written work in spelling 
daily, although of the opinion that the written work should be regarded 
as more essential than the oral. 

Arithmetic. — While the children seem thoroughly keen in their work 
in numbers and arithmetic we believe that the text-books in use set forth 
too many problems. The emphasis in the third and fourth grades 
should be upon processes with accuracy and speed as the main aims. 
The problem work undertaken below the fifth grade should be given 
orally rather than from the text, the teacher formulating problems and 
giving them out to the class as the class solves them mentally. The 
best problems will deal with objects not only concrete but familiar to 
the children. This should be varied by giving children practice in 
formulating problems for the rest of the class. This kind of work is 
valuable for the reason that it is a thought provoking exercise and at 
the same time affords practical application of the arithmetical processes. 
When problems are read from the book by the children, too much of 
the attention of the child is consumed by the interpretation of the printed 
page while the method above described has the advantage of leaving his 
mind free to attack the arithmetical problem unhampered. 

We believe that only very simple forms of analysis should be employed 
below the fifth grade, while in the fifth or sixth grades it should be 
made a very definite task of the teacher to develop power in the analysis 
of problems and that this be continued as a part of the work through 
the grammar grades. 



2. COOPERATIVE SUPERVISION 

Early in our investigation it became clearly evident that the system 
of supervision of class-room instruction and other practices pertaining 
to the welfare of the children of the Ashland schools was unique in 
spirit and fruitful in operation. The supervisory relationships existing 
among the superintendent, the several principals, and the various 
teachers struck us as being decidedly at variance with conditions known 
to exist in many cities of similar size elsewhere. 

From the very outset we sensed a vital relationship between the 
seemingly evident efficiency of the school system and the plan of 
supervision. We were, therefore, led to give the type of supervisory 
practice a very thorough investigation. To this end practically all of 



26 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

the teachers, the principals, and the superintendent were questioned in 
detail as to their parts in the existing scheme of supervision and as to 
their attitudes toward it. 

The result of this inquiry disclosed a system of supervision remark- 
ably free from discord and effective in administration which might well 
be copied elsewhere, and which may be described as cooperative super- 
vision. In this system of cooperative supervision and direction, influence 
radiates from the superintendent to the principals and to the teachers, 
but nowhere is to be discovered the presence of arbitrary exercise of 
power. Superintendent, principals and teachers are dominated by the 
aim: what is best for the welfare and development of the pupil. With 
this aim in view, the method of attaining it is cooperation of all forces. 

Consultations between and among the various members of the staff 
of the Ashland schools are frequent, remarkably so, in fact, but while 
suggestions for betterment come more frequently from superintendent 
or principals it is by virtue of their greater knowledge and experience 
and not by authority of position. Each teacher is free to use his or 
her own method when it seems to the best interest of the children. 
The principals and superintendent are quick to accept suggestions from 
any teacher as to means of bettering the efficiency of the work of the 
schools, and helpful ideas, regardless of the source, spread with great 
rapidity and are eagerly accepted by all who can use them. With this 
spirit of cooperation thoroughly dominant the teachers welcome every 
suggestion from the principals and superintendent. 

In such a system of cooperative supervision it is interesting to note 
the spirit of loyalty on the part of the teachers for their principals and 
superintendent. It is seldom the lot of the surveyor to witness a finer 
spirit of loyalty than exists among the Ashland teachers. In spite of 
the most searching inquiry we were unable to elicit one word or sign 
of criticism or complaint from a single teacher or principal in the 
Ashland system concerning a superior. On the other hand, all available 
evidence, which was plentiful, indicates clearly that the support given 
by those in authority from the school board down, has been in every case 
prompt, adequate and cheerfully given. 

In our opinion the most important factors of supervision are embodied 
in the aim and spirit of cooperative supervision. We add some of the 
details of practice in the Ashland system. Superintendent Briscoe 
normally visits every teacher in the elementary schools from ten to thirty 
minutes once every week. The teachei-s are pleased with his supervision. 
The elementary school principals are in and out of the classes frequently; 
as one of the teachers expressed it, "Oh, she is here all the time." The 
teachers are pleased to have the principals present. 

The teachers of the grade schools have weekly meetings to discuss 
common problems. There are also frequent meetings between teachers 
of similar grades as the fifth and sixth grade teachers' meeting. The 
teachers act through their principals in routine matters. Both teachers 
and principals deal through the superintendent and never directly with 
the school board. The teachers in all cases are selected by the superin- 
tendent although the principals place instructors in their respective 
buildings. While members of the board are friendly with the teachers, 
all school relations are, without exception, carried on through the 
superintendent. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



In the high school there is much less supervision. Under the existence 
of departmental instruction individual teachers are given great liberty. 
While this is well for the most part, the committee found existence of a 
lack of knowledge of comparative values on the part of several high 
school teachers who could undoubtedly profit by more supei'vision. One 
of the characteristics of good teaching is the placing of emphasis upon 
the elements of the lesson which are of chief importance as related to 
human welfare in general and the child's own life activities in particular. 
All text-books contain details of varying importance which pupils by 
good teaching may learn to recognize and to discriminate. The com- 
mittee believes in thorough drilling wherever drill will eventually prove 
economical but it urges the danger, particularly in mathematics and the 
languages, of subordinating more important values to the single end of 
disciplinary drill. 

The high school teachers meet once a week under the principal for 
discvission of immediate problems and the occasional presentation of 
papers by teachers. The high school teachers have little to say in 
forming general policies. These are usually established by Superin- 
tendent Briscoe in consultation with the principal, and all work cheerfully 
in carrying them out. In both high and elementary schools the teachers 
report that they are thoroughly supported by their principals and 
superintendent. 

With the exception of a few instances of high school instruction the 
committee has only words of commendation to offer concerning supervi- 
sion in the Ashland schools. By relieving the superintendent and high 
school principal of part of their instructional duties, the time saved to 
be spent in high school supervision, an ideal system of supervision may 
be easily attained. 



3. DEPARTMENTAL INSTRUCTION AND 
SUPERVISED STUDY 

For the past three years instruction has been given in the West Side 
School on the departmental basis. All of the eighth grade pupils of 
Ashland attend the West Side School and the departmental teaching 
in this school involves also the sixth and seventh grades. The sixth 
and seventh grades in the East Side School continue on the former basis. 
Penmanship has been placed in charge of one well qualified teacher in 
each grade school, and is reported to have improved under this plan. 
By virtue of the plan in the West Side School, teachers are enabled to 
give instruction in the subjects to which they are best adapted by train- 
ing and disposition. The committee believes that this change has been 
distinctly instrumental in improving instruction since its initiation. 

Coincident with departmentalization have come auxiliary teaching and 
supervised study. Each departmental teacher in the West Side School 
now has about four periods per week which are free from class or 
assembly work. Children not reciting remain in the large assembly room 
for the purpose of study. Here individual effort in an atmosphere of 
unbroken quiet, rather than directed or supervised effort, seems to be 
encouraged by the teacher in charge. During this time, however, the 
various instructors who are not teaching give their time to the interests 



28 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



of needy pupils. By ones, by small groups, or if occasion demands, by 
entire classes, pupils with various difficulties are taken to the instructors' 
class rooms and helped according to their special needs. By this agency 
the school is enabled to set and maintain standards of progress to which 
a very large percentage of the pupils attain. The committee heartily 
approves of this type of supervised study and recommends its extension, 
for despite the evident utility of the present plan of auxiliary teaching 
there is evidence that there has been an occasional child who has failed 
because present facilities in supervised study have not reached all. 

We recommend that music and drawing be departmentalized above the 
second or third grade. The addition of another music or drawing teacher 
will permit all of this instruction to be given directly by specialists 
approximately two times per week. This will relieve the regular grade 
teachers and permit them to use this time for giving special aid to 
needy pupils in the same manner as now prevails in the West Side 
departmentalized grades. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



CHAPTER V 
INSTRUCTION-SPECIAL TESTS 

There has been a growing' belief among school experts for the past 
decade that such general descriptive terms as "good," "excellent," and 
"poor," do not measure adequately the results of education, but are 
relatively as indefinite as the terms, "warm," "cool," and "hot," when 
applied to such substances as iron or water. Moreover, just as the 
invention of the thermometer has established an exact scale of measure- 
ment for various degrees of heat, so too has the invention of various 
quantitative scales of mental ability permitted accurate measurement 
of individual skill or attainment in certain school subjects. Considerable 
progress has been made in the formation of definite standard tests, 
such as the Courtis tests in arithmetic, and in the construction of 
objective scales, such as the Ayres' scale for measuring the quality of 
handwriting. The use of such objective scales does not necessarily do 
away with the more common and general methods of observation of the 
results of school progress, for it is by no means certain that the results 
most easily measured by quantitative scales are the most important in 
school work. But wherever quantitative measurement is possible there 
can be no question of the greater merit of the scientific scale. 

Time limitations and the lack of exact comparative data have pre- 
vented the committee from making use of all of the standard tests. We 
have, however, given a dictation test for the purpose of measuring 
ability in punctuation and capitalization among the children in the 
fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The handwriting thus 
obtained furnished material which has been graded on the Ayres' scale 
of handwriting. In addition to this, a special test was given in spelling, 
while the State eighth grade standard examination has afforded a com- 
parative test of a more general character. 

It should be noted here that the tests were given in Ashland just 
after the midyear promotion. Thirty-two of the eighth grade pupils 
(just graduated) are not represented in the results and part of the 
fourth grade is in reality "just over" third grade. The figures shown 
are at least one-fourth of a year inferior to actual average of annual 
conditions. 



1. DICTATION TESTS 

Punctuation, Capitalization and Spelling. — One of the members 
of the committee dictated the stories given below to all the pupils of the 
fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The stories were read 
slowly while the children wrote the same sentences with pen and ink as 
accurately as possible, being cautioned to write, spell and punctuate as 
well as they were able. 



30 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



1. THE FOX AND THE CROW 

Once a crow was sitting on a branch of a tree witii a piece of cheese 
in her mouth. 

A fox who wished to get the cheese said to her, "Good-morning, 
Mrs. Crow. How glossy, bright and beautiful your feathers are. If the 
crow's voice is only as fine as her looks, she is surely the queen of birds. 
Will you not sing for me?" 

The crow lifted her head and began to caw. The fox snapped up the 
cheese and ran off. 

"How foolish I've been," thought the crow, "to let him flatter me." 

2. THE FOX AND THE STORK 

One day a fox invited a stork to dinner. The fox thought he would 
have some fun, so he had soup which he served in a plate. 

The fox lapped the soup with his tongue, but the stork's bill was 
not even wet. 

"I am sorry that you do not like the soup, Mrs. Stork," said the fox. 

"Don't be sorry," replied the stork. "Will you not come to dinner 
with me on Monday?" 

When the fox came, the stork had meat in a tall, slender, long-necked 
jar. She could get the meat with her long bill but the fox could not 
get his nose in the jar. 

"I see that you have fun, too," said the fox. 

After the test had been completed, the papers were collected and 
corrected for selected mistakes. Five capitals, five spellings, and ten 
punctuation marks were arbitrarily selected in each story and each paper 
was graded according to the number of mistakes in the twenty chosen 
places. All other mistakes were neglected. This method is not satis- 
factory for the exact measurement of the ability of any certain individual 
pupil but is excellent for obtaining the average ability of entire classes 
or of schools. The results obtained are shown in Table Six. 



Table Six — Average Number of Mistakes by Ashland Pupils in Dictation Tests. 



Grade 


Capitals 

(Five) 


Spellings 

(Five) 


Puncutations 

(Ten) 


Total 
(Twenty) 


Fourth 


2.96 
1.13 

.92 

1.21 

1.21 

1.27 

.87 

.73 


3.88 
1.74 
2.40 
1.95 
1.30 
2.06 
1.02 
1.27 


7.84 
5.78 
4.77 
5.35 
4.65 
5.90 
4.60 
5.10 


14.68 


Fifth 

Sixth-B 


8.65 
8.09 


Sixth- A 


8.51 


Seven tli-B 


7.16 




9.23 


Eighth-B 


6.49 


Eighth-A 


7.10 






All 


1.11 


1.85 


5.10 


8.06 







Before commenting on these results it will be well to present Table 
Seven showing comparative results of the same test when given in 
(1) Ashland, (2) Pendleton, Oregon, (3) Boise, Idaho, and to (4) one 
thousand Oregon grade pupils selected at random throughout the State. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



31 



Table Seven — Total Mistakes in Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitals Out of 
Twenty Chances {First Trials). 



Grade 


Ashland Pendleton B^H 1 Oregon 


Fourth 


14.68 
8.65 
8.09 
8.51 
7.16 
9.23 
6.49 
7.10 


11.14 
9.54 
8.11 
8.11 
6.52 
6.50 
6.34 
6.34 


13.40 
9.80 
7.60 
6.10 
5.80 
5.00 
5.00 
.t; on 


12 50 


Fifth 


11 81 


Sixth-B 




Sixth-A 


8.33 


Seventh-B 




Seventh- A 


7.49 


Eighth-B 




Eighth-A 


7 24 








All 


8.06 


7.77 * 


9 06 











* Not recorded. 



The mistakes recorded in Table Seven are shown in graphic form 
in Figure 1 in which the height of the various curves varies inversely 
to the number of mistakes and thus depicts the improved standing from 
grade to grade. 



H 6 

< 7 

m 

S8 

§<» 

m 

%'^ 
> 

»4 



15 




HfAVY L1J1P - ASHLAHD 



6 ea €>A 

SCHOOL GRADE 



7S 



7A. 



SB 



SA. 



Figure 1. — Progress in Punctuation, Capitalization and Spelling among four 
groups of children in the Upper Elementary Grades. 



The results of these tests as indicated in the tables and the graph 
above indicate to the committee that, as a whole, the efficiency of the 
public school children of Ashland in the fundamentals of punctuation 
and capitalization is about the same as that in the one other first-class 
Oregon district recorded (Pendleton), is somewhat inferior to the ability 
of Boise, Idaho, pupils, and is noticeably superior to the conditions found 
among average Oregon school children. 



32 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



The results show, on the other hand, that, while there is general 
progress through the grades, it is neither steady nor satisfactory. 
Eight A is but little better than Seven B. There are numerous fifth 
grade pupils who are better than one-half the pupils of the entire eighth 
grade, while the average of nearly seven mistakes in twenty is certainly 
too large a percentage for pupils about to finish the grammar school. 
This condition is not peculiar to Ashland but is widespread. The com- 
mittee believes that this condition is due to lack of attention to the 
fundamentals indicated in the test, rather than to poor methods or 
teachers. Attention is called to the steady progress made from grade 
to grade in the Boise schools, where Superintendent Meek has been 
giving attention for several years to this work. The committee lacks 
definite information as to the conditions at the beginning of Superin- 
tendent Meek's work but the following comparison exhibits the improved 
result due to emphasis on this field of instruction. 

Table Eight — Percentages of Correct Punctuation, Etc., in Dictation Exercises 
at Boise, Idaho, in Successive Years. 





4B 


4A 


5B 


5A 


6B 


6A 


7B 


7A 


8B 


October, 1913 

February, 1914 .. 


44 
68 


52 

74 


59 

77 


71 

84 


71 

87 


77 
88 


79 

89 


81 
91 


82 
93 



The committee recommends that more attention be given to the funda- 
mentals of punctuation and capitalization. This should be accomplished 
either by special exercises in dictation or by critical attention given this 
phase of the pupils' regular written work, or if found necessary, to both. 
We believe, however, that a minor amount of definite concentrated effort 
in this field will accomplish satisfactory improvement. 



2. TESTS IN SPELLING 



The part of the dictation test which included the spelling of a few 
simple words was far too restricted to be used as a basis for measuring 
the spelling ability of the Ashland schools as a whole. For this purpose 
the method used by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres in the survey of the Spring- 
field, Illinois, public schools was followed in detail, and may well be 
described by quoting from the Springfield report, (p. 71) : 

"Spelling tests of ten dictated words were given through the system 
in all of the grades from the second to the eighth inclusive. The words 
used in these tests were chosen from lists used by the Division of 
Education of the Russell Sage Foundation in an investigation that it 
is now conducting of the spelling ability of children in elementary schools. 
The Division has conducted studies to discover the 1,000 words most 
commonly used in writing and it has made these words into spelling 
lists with which children in nearly 100 American cities have been tested. 
From among these words 10 were chosen which this investigation has 
shown are on the average spelled correctly by 70 per cent of the children 
in the second grades of other cities. Similarly 10 words were chosen 
which children in the third grades of other cities spell on the average 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



33 



of 70 per cent correctly. In the same way 10 words were chosen for 
each of the other elementary grades and in each case they were of 
such difficulty that on the average seven out of ten children spell them 
correctly while three misspell them." 

These lists of 10 words for each grade are shown in Table Nine, 

Table Nine — Words Used in Spelling Tests. (On the Average Seven Children Out 
of Ten in the Same Grades in Other Cities Can Spell Them Correctly.) 



Second 


Third 


Fourth 


Fifth 


Sixth 


Seventh 


Eighth 


Grade 


Grade 


Grade 


Grade 


Grade 


Grade 


Grade 


foot 


fill 


forty 


Several 


decide 


district 


petrified 


get 


point 


rate 


leaving 


general 


consideration 


tariff 


for 


state 


children 


publish 


manner 


athletic 


emergency 


horse 


ready 


prison 


o'clock 


too 


distinguish 


corporation 


cut 


almost 


title 


running 


automobile 


evidence 


convenience 


well 


high 


getting 


known 


victim 


conference 


receipt 


name 


event 


need 


secure 


hospital 


amendment 


cordially 


room 


done 


throw 


wait 


neither 


liquor 


discussion 


left 


pass 


feel 


, manner 


toward 


experience 


appreciate 


with 


Tuesday 


speak 


flight 


business 


receive 


decision 



The results of this test which was given to the children of the 
Ashland schools show that they spell on the average noticeably better 
than children in other cities. The average of 3,612 children in Spring- 
field, Illinois, is 70 per cent, or the same as the general average in other 
cities. The average of the Ashland children is 75 per cent. Out of 
18 grade schools in the city of Springfield, but three average higher than 
either of the Ashland schools, one is equal to, and fourteen are below 
the Ashland standard. Table Ten shows the relative standing of the 
Ashland schools with those of Springfield, Illinois, and the general 
average of city schools. 

Table Ten — Per Cent of Words Correctly Spelled by Children in Each Grade in 
Ten Word Spelling Lists. 



Grade 


Per cent correct in 
all cities 


Per cent correct in 
Ashland 


Per cent correct in 
Springfield 


Second 


70 

70 
70 
70 
70 
70 
70 


86 
73 
81 
88 
61 
73 
66 


70 


Third 


65 


Fourth 

Fifth . . 


70 

72 


Sixth 


68 




73 


Eighth 


75 


Total 


70 


75 


70 







3. TESTS OF HANDWRITING 

The specimens of handwriting of the pupils in grades five to eight 
obtained in the dictation tests described above were graded by use of 
the Ayres Handwriting Scale. This scale is a device for measuring the 
quality of children's handwriting constructed by Leonard P. Ayres of 
the Russell Sage Foundation.* The scale measures the quality of hand- 



* A scale for measuring the quality of handwriting of school children. Division 
of Education. Russell Sage Foundation, 1912. 



34 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



writing from very poor specimens graded 20 up to very excellent speci- 
mens graded 90. The average quality of writing for children of the 
fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades combined the country over is 
scaled at 50. 

Each specimen of handwriting of the upper elementary pupils of the 
Ashland schools was graded on the Ayres Scale by twelve judges and 
the average of the twelve taken as the final gi-ade. The average quality 
of each of the four grades is given in Table Eleven. 



Table Eleven — Average Quality of Handwriting of School 


Children of Ashland. 


Grade Fifth 


Sixth Seventh | 


Eighth 1 All 


Average quality .... 37 


-'/.'/ ',6 ! 

1 


51, Jio 



The average quality of the four grades at 45 as compared with the 
average of the country at 50 indicates that the handwriting of the 
Ashland schools is below the average standard. Further investigation 
to discover the cause of this condition has revealed certain factors which 
tend to modify this judgment. During the year 1913 the vertical style 
of penmanship was superseded in the State of Oregon by the State 
adoption of the Palmer system. The Palmer system has now been 
taught over a year and the resultant slant is quite noticeable in contrast 
to the older vertical style. The tests revealed the fact that a large 
number of children are in the midst of a transition stage as far as 
actual practice is concerned. Some still used the old vertical style under 
the stress of the dictation test, some used the Palmer style, while many 
showed traces of both styles. The judges were unanimously of the 
opinion that as far as legibility was concerned (speed was not tested) 
the transfer in style has lowered the average quality of writing through- 
out the upper grades. 

The most significant result of the tests in handwriting is not the 
discovery of the general average quality maintained by the school but 
the remarkable variation which exists among pupils of the same grade. 
Reference to Table Twelve will reveal this condition which, it should be 
added, is not peculiar to Ashland alone. 

Table Twelve — Percentage of Pupils of Grades Five to Eight Writing Qualities 
Twenty to Eighty on the Ayres Handwriting Scale. 



Quality 


W 


30 


iO 


50 


60 


70 


80 


Grade Five 

Grade Six 


3 


40 

22 

9 


54 
44 

42 
24 


3 
25 
26 
26 


"9 
14 

24 


9 

24 


.... 






Grade Eight 


o 






All 


1 


18 


40 


20 


12 


8 


1 



The figures opposite each grade indicate what per cent of that grade 
wrote the quality in handwriting shown at the top of the column. Thus 
in grade five, 3 per cent of the class wrote quality 20, 40 per cent wrote 
quality SO, 54 per cent wi-ote quality .^0, and 3 per cent wrote quality 50. 

Inspection discloses some noteworthy facts. Over one-half (57%) 
of the fifth grade pupils write as well (iO) as one-fourth (24%) of the 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



35 



eighth grade. One-third (34%) of the sixth grade write better (50) 
than one-half (51%) of the seventh grade and one-fourth (24%) of the 
eighth grade. One-fourth (23%) of the seventh grade w^rite better (60) 
than one-half (50%) of the eighth grade. 

While the committee recognizes that schools should not be organized 
upon the basis of ability in handwriting, the great overlapping of the 
present classes in achievement in this art can not promote the best 
efficiency in teaching. When pupils writing the very poor quality 30 
are in the same classes with pupils writing 70, group methods are 
greatly weakened and the economy of proper classification lost. The 
degree to which the four classes overlap is concretely shown in Figure 2. 

One means of improving the effectiveness of instruction in penman- 
ship lies in a better classification of the groups of pupils receiving 
instruction at any given time. With a homogeneous group assembled, 
special methods may be used to bring the pupils to an appropriate 
standard. The Ayres scale may well be used both as a scale and as a 
standard. If the child and teacher each know exactly what individual 
progress is being made much more can be accomplished than by random 
efforts. 





_50 


1 




1 1 




' 1 


1 


m 


-40 














J 
















M 
















fc 
















D 
















Ph 
















fe 
















O 


-30 












- 


a 






J, 

1 


«/ / 
v/ < 1 


\ \ 


■~*'^^M GRADE 




o 


\ \ 


Pi 

Ah 






/ 


• / cyl 1 


\ \ 


V \ \ 




-20 


I 
/- 


/ 


y '/ / 


\"^ 


\\ \ 


- 






It 


1 


1 s </ 




\ \ \ 








iTi 


1 




\t. 


\^ \ 






-lO 


i 


/ 
/ 




\r 

XT' 
\'' 
\'' 

1 


OvA 





GRADE OF AYRES SCALE 

Figure 2. — Overlapping of Upper Elementary Grades in ability of Penman- 
ship. The curves indicate the percentages of each grade scoring W, 30. kO, 50, 60, 
to and 80 on the Ayres Scale. 



36 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

No ultimate standard of handwriting for elementary school children 
has yet been agreed upon. The importance of good writing varies 
greatly in different vocations and according to access to the typewriter. 
For purposes of school work and the ordinary demands of life, quality 60 
may be considered quite satisfactory. This would indicate that probably 
one-fourth of the Ashland children write sufficiently well at present. 
On the other hand, approximately one-fourth of the children write 
around quality 30 which is decidedly poor for any purpose. It would 
be a decided uplift if this group could be raised to the standard of 60 
before leaving the elementary school. 

The committee therefore recommends that the classes in penmanship 
be reorganized on the basis of ability and that a large share of the time 
given to the best one-fourth of the upper elementary grades be devoted 
to the poorest one-fourth. The higher one-fourth who have already 
attained a satisfactory standard may be well taken care of by a mini- 
mum of practice. (Recent investigation* indicates that skill in hand- 
writing does not increase in general with a greater amount of practice.) 
The time thus saved may well be given to other essentials of the 
elementary course of study not so well mastered. 



4. EIGHTH GRADE EXAMINATIONS 

In the State of Oregon it is the duty of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction to prepare questions for use in the examination of pupils 
who have completed the eighth grade in accordance with the provisions 
of the State course of study. Pupils who pass successfully are entitled 
to entrance into any ninth grade in the State without further examination. 
The eighth grade papers are graded by a county board of examiners 
consisting ordinarily of the county school superintendent and four special 
appointees. 

A number of districts of the first class in Oregon having high schools 
are in counties which maintain a so-called county high school fund. 
This fund pays to standard high schools within the county tuition varying 
in amount from $12.50 per pupil to $40.00 per pupil, amounting in some 
districts to five or six thousand dollars. It is necessary, however, that 
pupils shall have passed the eighth grade uniform final examination 
before drawing county fund tuition. It therefore haprpens that while 
some first class districts (containing 1,000 children of school age) do 
not give the State uniforni eighth grade examination, a number of 
them, including Ashland, do so under the county high school fund law. 

The committee has secured from the several county superintendents 
statistics of the results of the uniform eighth grade examinations given 
in the years 1913, 1914, and 1915, in districts of the first class in the 
cities of Corvallis, Grants Pass, Eugene, Medford, Pendleton, and The 
Dalles, as well as in two large second-class districts. Cottage Grove and 
Springfield. In these districts a total of 1,717 pupils have attempted 
the examination within the past three years and 1,074, almost exactly 
two-thirds, have passed. The figures by years are given in Table 
Thirteen. 



* Freeman : The Fourteenth Year Book of the National Society for the Study 
of Education, 1915. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



37 



Table Thirteen — Results of Uniform Eighth Grade Examinations in Eight 
Representative Oregon Cities During the Years 1913-1915. 




1913 


1914 


1915 (Jan.) 


Total 




Passed Failed 


Passed 


Failed 


Passed 


Failed 


Passed 


Failed 


Number 


430 
66.3 


219 
33.7 


469 
66.5 


236 
33.5 


175 
66.5 


88 
33.5 


1074 
66.4 


543 


Per cent 


33.6 



It is worthy of attention to note the regularity from year to year 
with which half as many pupils in representative Oregon first-class 
districts fail in passing the eighth grade final examinations as succeed. 
It indicates either that the examinations or the course of study is too 
difficult, or that the schools are not measuring up to their responsibility, 
for in the opinion of the committee, one-third is much too large a 
fraction of failures to record against a public school system. On the 
other hand, it is significant to note that during these same three years 
(see Table Fourteen), of 183 Ashland eighth grade pupils who took the 
same examinations, but seven pupils or less than four per cent failed 
to pass. 



Table Fourteen — Result of Uniform Eighth Grade Examinations in Ashland 
During the Years 1913-1915. 





1913 


1914 


1 
1915 \ Total 




Passed j Failed 


Passed Failed j Passed 


Failed 


Passed i Failed 


Number 

Per cent .... 


72 3 
96 1 4 


72 
96 


3 

4 


32 
97 


1 
3 


176 
96 


7 
4 



It should be added that Medford, a second city within the same 
county (Jackson) as Ashland, had approximately the same figures, and 
that the better record may not be due exclusively to better schools but, 
in part at least, to the standard of grading used by the county board of 
examiners. In either event the situation in Jackson County is much more 
to be commended than that which exists elsewhere. 



38 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

CHAPTER VI 
PROGRESS OF PUPILS 

One of the most important measures of a school system is to be 
discovered by an analysis of the progress of its pupils through the 
grades. During the school year 1913-14, under the direction of one 
of the members of the survey staff (Professor Fred C. Ayer) , Superin- 
tendent Briscoe made a detatiled study of the promotion, progress, 
retardation, and elimination of pupils in the Ashland grade schools. 
The committee has before it a vast amount of tabulated data which, 
in this report, has been reduced to a limited number of tables and the 
more important generalizations. 

The truancy laws in Oregon apply to all children in ordinary health 
between the ages of nine and fifteen, living within three miles of a 
school building. This law is fairly well enforced in Ashland, but as 
the normal age for grade one is seven years, many children who are 
kept out of school until past nine, enter school two or three years 
retarded or over-age. 

Pupils who are in the various grades of the elementary schools are 
commonly described as being of "normal age," or "retarded," or "accel- 
erated." In the following discussion pupils who were seven years old 
and under eight in September, and in the first grade are regarded as 
being of normal age. In like manner pupils who were eight and under 
nine and in the second grade are taken as of normal age, and similarly 
up to the eighth grade where they should be fourteen in September. 
Pupils who are under the normal age for their grades are said to be 
accelerated. Pupils who are over the normal age for their grade are 
said to be retarded. 



1. RETARDATION 

The retarded pupil is one of the great problems of the school. Late 
entrance and failure of promotion are the chief causes for retardation, 
but whatever the cause, the results are unfortunate. The retarded 
pupils ordinarily reach the compulsory age limit in the upper grammar 
grades and because of personal or economical reasons leave school per- 
manently, ill-prepared for the activities of modern life. On the other 
hand, those who remain by failure in promotion, bulk up the lower 
grades until in many schools the money cost of educating the children 
for an extra number of years is greatly increased, and in some grades 
practically doubled. 

Table Fifteen shows conditions in the Ashland elementary schools 
for the year 1913-14. 

The figures in the top of each square show how many boys of a 
certain age were in that grade, and the figures in the bottom of each 
square show how many girls of the same age were in the same grade. 
Then in Grade 1 there were 32 boys and 41 girls six years old, 17 boys 
and 9 girls seven years old, and 3 boys and no girls eight years old. 
How the ages scatter out in succeeding grades is plainly depicted. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



39 



Table Fifteen — All Grades. Enrollment by Age and Grade. Number of Boys 

and Girls of Each Grade, and Number of Each Below Age for Grade, 

Number of Normal, and Number Above Age for Grade. 



Ages 


First 
Grade 


Second 
Grade 


Third 
Grade 


Fourth 
Grade 


Fifth ; 
Grade 


Sixth 
Grade 


Seventh Eighth 
Grade Grade 


Total 


6 


( Boys 
1 Girls 

1 Boys 
1 Girls 

( Boys 
1 Girls 

( Boys 
1 Girls 

( Boys 
1 Girls 

( Boys 
1 Girls 

\ Boys 
/ Girls 

\ Boys 
( Girls 

( Boys 
( Girls 

i Boys 

- "1 Girls 

) Boys 

1 Girls 

1 Boys 

- ■( Girls 

t Boys 

- "( Girls 

j Boys 

- 1 Girls 

1 Boys 
( Girls 

( Boys 
- 1 Girls 

( Boys 
1 Girls 


32 

41 


3 
4 




1 


1 ! 1 35 

1 46 




17 

9 


14 
24 


2 
6 












33 
39 




8 


6 




13 

13 


15 

27 


4 
2 


1 






38 
42 






9 


3 



7 
7 


17 
27 


4 

17 



2 








31 
53 


10 




3 

1 


14 
7 


17 

21 


7 
14 


1 
3 






42 
46 


11 


1 



3 


8 
15 


18 
15 


11 
5 


2 



39 
38 


12 


1 
1 


2 




2 
6 


9 

7 


26 

21 


5 

8 




44 
42 


13 






1 



2 

1 


4 
5 


11 
13 


15 
14 


11 
10 


44 
43 


14 


1 




3 




9 

7 


8 
14 


13 

16 


33 
37 


15 








i 2 
1 


2 

4 


5 
3 


11 
13 


20 
20 


16 






i 




6 

1 


2 
5 


10 
6 


18 
12 


17 














1 



3 
1 


4 

1 


18 


1 

1 










1 








1 


Total _.. 


58 
50 


40 
49 


51 
71 


37 
62 


43 

43 


66 

55 


38 

44 


48 
46 


381 

420 


Grand Total 


















801 


Below 

Normal 


32 

41 


17 

28 


19 
32 


8 
19 


7 
16 


12 

8 


7 
8 


11 

10 


113 
162 


Normal 


17 
9 


13 
13 


17 
27 


17 
21 


18 
15 


26 
21 


15 
14 


13 
16 


136 
136 


Above 

Normal 


9 



10 

8 


17 
10 


12 

22 


18 
12 


28 
26 


16 

22 


24 

20 


134 
; 120 



The zigzag line in the table divides the pupils into three groups, 
those below normal age for grades (accelerated), those normal age for 
grade, and those above normal age for grade (retarded). The number 
of normal pupils for each grade rests upon the zigzag line, while the 
number of retarded pupils is found below the line. The number of 
accelerated pupils is found in the squares above the one resting upon 
the zigzag line. 



40 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



The following summary shows the general conditions which as com- 
pared with other school systems reported is very favorable: 



Table Sixteen — Age Distribution of Grade 


Children, 1913-U. 






Felow Age 

(Accelerated) 


Normal Age 
fur Grade 


Above Age 
(Retarded) 


Total 


Boys 

Girls 


113 
162 


136 
136 


134 
120 




381 
420 










Total 


275 


272 


254 


801 



This table shows that the girls progress more rapidly through the 
grades than the boys, but the difference is decidedly less marked than 
in many other (larger) schools which have been investigated. 



2. PROMOTION 

As the amount of retardation depends primarily upon the rate of 
promotion through the grade, and as all tables which neglect the pupils 
who have dropped out of school (elimination) are faulty, it is important 
to note these factors in the Ashland schools. 

Table Seventeen shows in detail the rate of promotion of pupils in 
the Ashland schools. 

Table Seventeen — All Grade Schools Promotion by Grades and Sex. 





First 


Second 


Third 


Fourth 


Fifth 


Sixth 


Sev'nth 


Eighth 


Total 


Boys promoted .... 
Girls promoted .. 


85 
60 


65 

78 


86 
112 


67 
106 


67 
71 


102 
94 


62 

72 


50 

57 


584 
650 


Total promoted 

Boys failed 

Girls failed 


145 

13 
9 


143 

5 
4 


198 

4 
5 


173 

5 
3 


138 

1 


196 

11 
3 


134 

3 

4 


107 

2 

2 


1234 

51 
33 


•Total failed 

Per cent passed .. 
Per cent failed.... 


22 

86.9 
13 


9 

94 
6 


9 

95.6 
4.3 


8 

95.5 
4.5 


11 

92.6 
7.3 


14 

93.3 
6.6 


7 

95 
5 


4 

96.7 
3.2 


84 

93.6 
6.3 



It is seen that the girls made 650 promotions out of a possible 683, 
or 95.1 per cent while the boys made 584 promotions out of a possible 635, 
or 92 per cent. The combined pupils made promotions at the rate of 
93.6 per cent. It is a striking situation in the Ashland schools that such 
a large rate of promotion is possible and even more striking that this 
rate is approximately uniform throughout the grades. 

Leonard P. Ayres, Educational Expert of the Russell Sage Founda- 
tion, in the School Survey of Springfield, Illinois, 1914, says with refer- 
ence to the Springfield schools, "In general the promotion rates are 
well up, ranging from 85 to 90 per cent." The Ashland standard exceeds 
the excellent record of the Springfield system by about 5 per cent. 

Providing promotion occurs by merit only, this high standard of 
promotion marks a great saving of money to Ashland and of time in 
the lives of the pupils. That promotion goes by merit is shown by the 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



41 



success with which over 95 per cent of the Ashland pupils have met 
the test of eighth grade examinations imposed upon them by the State 
(described in a previous section). Promotions occur regularly twice 
each year. For pupils of the first three grades, no formal tests of any 
sort are given. The pupils are promoted on the initiative of the teacher 
who consults the principal with doubtful cases. From grades four to 
eight promotions (save a limited number of exemptions) are made by 
examination. The questions are prepared by the local teachers for all 
grades save the eighth which are prepared by the State Superintendent 
and graded by the County Board of Examiners. 

It has become a practice in the Ashland system to make conditional 
transfers in grades four to seven. Even when pupils fail to make the 
standard 75 per cent in each subject they may be transferred condi- 
tionally on the judgment of the teacher. Four years' trial has disclosed 
the fact that about 80 per cent of the "conditioned" pupils have kept up 
with the regular class. The committee commends this procedure very 
highly, believing pupils should be in classes where they will do the 
best work providing the class is not retarded as a whole thereby. 



3. ELIMINATION 

There are two kinds of elimination of school children, preventable 
and non-preventable. When children leave school because of faults 
within the system, elimination is preventable, but when it is caused by 
children dying or moving away it is non-preventable and should not be 
charged to the schools. The amount of elimination by grades in the 
Ashland schools during the year 1913-14 is shown in Table Eighteen. 



TABiiE Eighteen — Elimination of Pupils in Elementary Schools. 





First 
Grade 


Second 
Grade 


Third 
Grade 


Fourth 
Grade 


Fifth 
Grade 


Sixth 
Grade 


Sev'nth 
Grade 


Eighth 
Grade 


Total 


Boys eliminated .. 
Girls eliminated .. 


13 

18 


10 
9 


9 
15 


1 
10 


7 
7 


12 
9 


7 
8 


12 
6 


71 

82 


Total number .. 


31 


19 


24 


11 


14 


21 


15 


18 


153 



In the enrollment of 801, there were 381 boys and 420 girls. Of these 
153 were eliminated, 71 boys and 82 girls. The per cent elimination 
is 19.1. The per cent of elimination for the boys based upon the number 
of boys enrolled is 18.9; for the girls based upon the number of girls 
enrolled it is 19.5. 

Table Nineteen gives an analysis of the causes of this elimination : 



Table Nineteen — Causes of Elimination in Ashland Elementary Schools. 





Moved 
Away 


Sick 


Unknown 


Work 


Bad 


Lazy 


Death 


Boys 


58 
64 


9 
11 



3 



2 


2 
1 


1 

\ 1 


1 


Girls 









Total 


122 


20 


3 


2 


3 


2 


1 



42 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

A glance at the table shows that the schools could in no way be held 
responsible for the elimination of those pupils accounted for in the first 
and the last columns, i. e., by moving and death, which is 80.3 per cent 
of the elimination. In column two, there are 20 pupils or 13 per cent 
of the entire elimination caused by sickness. Just what part of the 
responsibility for the poor health of these pupils the schools should bear 
can not be known, probably a very small share, since most of the cases 
were of a chronic nature, and withdrawn from school upon the advice 
of a physician, a written statement of facts accompanying each with- 
drawal. The remaining 10 cases, or 6.5 per cent of the number eliminated 
and .011 per cent of the entire enrollment may be charged justly to the 
inefficiency of the schools. 

This shows a small amount of both preventable and non-preventable 
elimination as compared with other school systems. Strayer and Thorn- 
dike, in their Educational Administration, 1913, estimate that for every 
100 pupils in the elementary schools 8 years of age there will remain 
97 at 12 years of age, 88 at 13 years, 70 at 14 years, 47 at 15 years, 
and 30 at 16 years. Compared to this theoretical condition we find that 
in Ashland for every 100 pupils of 8 years of age there are 107 at 12, 
110 at 13, 103 at 14, 82 at 15, and 81 at 16 years of age. This shows 
a marked decrease in elimination in the years 12 to 16 favoring Ashland 
schools from 10 to over 200 per cent. 

Further study of the high school shows that there are practically as 
many pupils in the early years of the high school as there are eight- 
year-old pupils in the same system, indicating that in Ashland certainly 
there is no call for a junior high school to prevent elimination. 

The committee commends the superintendent for making a detailed 
study of conditions of retardation, promotion, and elimination, and 
recommends that the study be continued with the view of learning and 
ameliorating as far as possible the individual causes which prevail 
against the backward or absent children. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 43 

CHAPTER VII 

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF 
ASHLAND SCHOOLS 

The public school system of Ashland is managed in accordance with 
the most approved principles of good corporate management with the 
exception of one or two points which will be discussed later. The Board 
of School Directors assumes the position of a Board of Directors in a 
large corporation and gives to its chief executive officer, the Superin- 
tendent of Schools, authority and freedom of action commensurate with 
his duties and responsibilities. The board does not interfere with or 
attempt to manage the details of school administration, but very properly 
leaves these matters to the decision of its educational expert. Matters 
relating to the outlining of the course of study, the selection of school 
books, the competency of instruction, and the selection, assignment, 
promotion, and dismissal of teachers and janitors are left to the judgment 
of the superintendent. 

This plan relieves the board of the petty details of school adminis- 
tration, from strong personal influences and pulls, and enables its 
members to devote their energies to the larger and more important needs 
of the schools. These larger needs comprise the following: the selection 
of its general manager; the larger problems of finance, present and 
future; the selection of school sites; the approval of building plans; 
the expansion and enlargement of the educational system; the determina- 
tion of the budget of expenses correlated with revenues and the presen- 
tation of the needs and policies of the school system to the people of 
the city. 

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL BOARD 

The school board consists of five members, elected at large, by the 
legal voters of the school district. The board appoints the school clerk 
who keeps the minutes of the board meetings, the financial books of the 
district, issues all warrants, takes the annual school census and makes 
an annual report to the county superintendent. 

No regular committees exist for the purpose of carrying on the 
work entrusted to the school board. That this method of conducting 
business apparently works satisfactorily is due doubtless to the small 
amount of business to be transacted. As the business grows with the 
growth of the school district, it will no doubt be found advisable to 
have several committees, as, for example, a committee on finance, a 
committee on buildings and grounds, and a committee on instruction. 

2. FINANCIAL PROCEDURE 

Although no audit was made of the financial records and books, the 
financial procedure followed seemed to be correct. All claims are allowed 
by the board in regular session and properly recorded in the minutes of 



44 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 

the meeting. Warrants are then drawn in favor of the payee and signed 
by the chairman of the board and the clerk. Claimants and vendors 
are required to accompany their bills with a written order; this is 
deserving of special mention. It is customary in public business to 
require the person ordering supplies to certify to the following state- 
ments; viz.: (1) that the goods or services are necessary and that they 
are to be used only for the benefit of the schools, and (2) that the cost 
of the supplies or services ordered is fully covered by an unencumbered 
balance in the appropriation against which the cost is to be charged. 
The order blank used at present might be made to conform to the best 
modern practice by having the above-mentioned statements printed 
thereon and certified to each time an order is issued and instead of the 
words "For what used," there could be inserted the words "Fund to be 
charged." It would seem desirable and practicable to limit the authority 
to issue orders against school funds to the school clerk and the school 
superintendent and to specify in detail the particular funds each was 
authorized to issue orders against. This should be done by order of the 
board immediately after the adoption of the annual budget. Any janitor, 
principal, member of school board, desiring to have purchases made 
would be required to get an order from either the clerk or the superin- 
tendent, and no bill would be allowed by the board unless authorized by 
either the clerk or superintendent. This system would definitely place 
the responsibility for exceeding the budget appropriation with the persons 
authorized to issue orders, which is the logical way to exercise control 
over expenditures. The attempt to exercise control over expenditures 
after the goods are ordered and have been received and the merchant has 
presented his bill is not founded on sound business principles. When 
the board audits the bills and allows the claims they want the following 
information: (1) Has the order been made by a person authorized to 
incur obligations against school funds; (2) Are there sufficient funds 
available for paying the bill in the particular fund against which it is 
to be charged; (3) Has the order been charged against the correct fund; 

(4) Have the goods ordered been actually received in good condition; 

(5) Does the claim of the merchant agree with the original order as to 
quantity, quality and price. The evidence now submitted to the board 
as to the receipt of the goods is the O. K. of the person ordering. It is 
maintained that this is not sufficient evidence and that there should be 
substituted a definite printed form known as a Receiving Slip upon 
which shall be entered in detail the goods received by the person receiving 
them. Any individual in the school system, whether it be a teacher, 
principal, janitor, superintendent or clei'k receiving goods on behalf of 
the schools should immediately fill out one of these receiving slips, 
noting the date, goods received and whether in good condition, sign it, 
and send the slip to the superintendent. This would supply the board 
with all the information needed. The original order, to which should be 
attached the receiving slip or slips, and the merchant's bill should be 
presented to the board for audit. 

The policy of the board in securing bids on all purchases both from 
local dealers and outside dealers is to be especially commended. It is 
herein suggested that the board should formally adopt rules and regu- 
lations governing all financial procedure and that among these should be 
one requiring at least three bids to be obtained on all expenditures which 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 45 

will aggregate $10.00 during the course of a year. As the business of 
the system increases it will doubtless be found more economical to have 
Bid Sheets printed especially for this purpose than to write three or 
more letters each time bids are secured. 



3. RECORDING OF TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES 

The Oregon school laws provide that "If any district school board 
shall draw a warrant on the school fund for the wages of any teacher 
who does not hold a valid teachers' permit, certificate or diploma, and 
lay the same before the boards of directors for inspection, such district 
.shall forfeit its proportion of the school fund for the current year." 
(L. 1913, Chap. 172.) In order for the board to protect itself and the 
residents of the district against such a contingency, the board should 
require the clerk to keep on file in his office an authentic record of the 
certificate of each teacher employed. No warrant should be drawn for 
any teacher's salary whose certificate is not definitely recorded in the 
clerk's office. 



4. PAYROLL 

The largest single item of expenditure in the school budget is for 
the salaries of teachers and yet Ashland has no payroll. Out of a total 
budget of $46,000.00, over one-half or $25,000.00 is annually expended 
for salaries of principals and teachers. 

A properly planned payroll accomplishes two very important pur- 
poses: (1) it serves as a voucher or receipt for money disbursed, and 
(2) it reveals the details of the cost of instruction by buildings and 
grades. The principal of each school or the superintendent, if he has 
personal knowledge of the actual attendance of each teacher, should 
prepare the payroll which should contain the name of each teacher, 
annual or monthly salary, time absent, deductions and amount due, and 
he should certify that the payroll as prepared is correct. The clerk 
should then proceed to scrutinize the payroll from the following stand- 
points: (1) Was each person named duly appointed or elected as shown 
by written evidence on file in his office; (2) Has each person named 
filed with him a copy of his certificate; (3) Will the amount mentioned 
in the payroll exceed the amount appropriated for this purpose in the 
budget. After being ordered paid by the board, the clerk proceeds to 
draw the warrants. A payroll should be made out for each building 
and as warrants are handed to teachers they should sign the payroll, 
or the teachers might authorize the principal in writing to sign the 
payroll for them in which case the principal might go to the clerk's 
office, sign the payroll for all the teachers, get the warrants and 
distribute them to the teachers. The following form of payroll is 
recommended : 



46 


CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 




Table Twenty — Sample Payroll Blank. 
P. S. District No. 5 


Received from the Board of Education of Ashland the amount set opposite 
our hands respectively, being in full for services rendered from to . 


■M„™« 1 Position 
Name | „, g^de 


Monthly 
salary 


Time 
absent 


Deduct- 
tions 


Amount Warrant 
due No. 


Signatures 
































1 












1 1 1 1 1 


1 



5. SCHOOL RECORDS AT HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING 



The school clerk should be kept close to the educational management 
and made to feel that he is a part of the educational organization. The 
present isolation of the clerk with his books and records kept in the 
vaults of one of the banks at considerable distance from the office of 
the superintendent is not an economical or efficient arrangement. Cur- 
rent information regarding the operation of the school system, which 
the superintendent needs to have at hand in order to manage his work 
successfully can under the present arrangement be obtained only by 
telephoning to the clerk in another part of the city or making a trip 
to the clerk's office. Under the existing local conditions, and with the 
safeguards of the budget system of handling expenditures, the committee 
can see no objection in combining the duties now performed by the 
school clerk and the assistant to the school superintendent in one office, 
until such time as the work of these two offices shall have grown to 
such an extent as to demand the full time of two persons. For this 
position the board could afford to pay a salary sufficiently large to 
demand the full time of a competent bookkeeper and stenographer, who, 
in addition to keeping the books of the district could relieve the superin- 
tendent of a considerable amount of business duties connected with the 
purchasing of educational and other supplies. This person should be 
elected by the board, who should determine his tenure and compensation; 
he should be required to give bonds for the faithful performance of his 
duties, and the books of the office should be audited each year; he 
should make all purchases, approve all bills, and when ordered paid by 
the board draw warrants for their payment; pay all employes for service 
performed; act as secretary of the board and have general charge of 
the repair, operation and care of all school property. In addition to 
these duties, his remaining time would be devoted to assisting the 
superintendent. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 47 

6. THE BUDGET 

The board prepares an annual budget and lives within this budget. 
This is to be commended. The form of the budget can be improved by 
following the classification of accounts recommended by the United 
States Bureau of Education. Standard classification of school accounts 
have been devised by the U. S. Bureau of Education which have been 
successfully applied to large and small school systems for a number of 
years. The committee has been advised that the legislature has just 
formed a law requiring the publication of the annual school budget. 
We feel, therefore, that it is important that the Ashland schools should 
adopt this standard system. 

The system is the best system yet devised and is capable of expansion 
as the school system grows, and hence will not have to be changed from 
year to year. A standard classification of expenditures becomes more 
valuable each year because it makes possible the comparison of expen- 
ditures of one year with those of another, and with those of other cities 
of similar size. 

The purposes for which school funds are expended are so nearly alike 
in all school systems, whether great or small, that standardization in 
school accounting is a comparatively simple problem. Every expenditure 
of school money can be classified under one of the following divisions: 
Administration, instruction, operation of school plant, maintenance of 
school plant, acquisition of plant or equipment, and fixed charges and 
contributions^ and these have come to be regarded as the standard classi- 
fication for school purposes. 

By the very simple process of grouping the items of expenditure as 
set forth in the 1915-16 budget under different headings, the standard 
form of budget can be produced for Ashland and furthermore by simply 
inserting these new headings in the clerk's distribution book the account- 
ing can be made to conform to the best modern standards in school 
accounting. There is given on pages 48 and 49 in parallel columns the 
budget for 1915-16 as prepared by the Ashland board and the same items 
grouped under standard classifications. 

The clerk's distribution of expenditures should contain columns for 
recording the following information. (1) Date; (2) Invoice number; 
(3) To whom paid; (4) For what; (5) For what school; (6) Total 
amount; (7) Warrant No., and then columns for distributing the item 
under the proper expense classification of the budget. 



7. RECORD OF RECEIPTS 

The receipts of a school system are of two kinds, viz., revenue 
receipts and non-revenue receipts, and for recording these a book 
arranged with columns as shown in Table Twenty-two, page 50, will be 
found advisable. 



48 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 



Table Twenty-One — Typical BiuUjet Classifications. 



Ashland Budget Classifications, 
1915-1916 

A. Fixed yearly charges $12,660 

1. Fuel : 

a. Wood ....$900 

b. Oil 800 

c. Kindling .. 25 

$1,725 

2. Light 360 

3. Telephone 75 

4. Water 100 

5. Sinking fund 5,000 

6. Interest 4,750 

7. Insurance 250 

8. Freight, Teleg.... 100 

9. Clerk and census 300 

B. Salaries 27,720 

1. Superintendent.... $1,800 

2. H. S. Principal.. 1,250 

3. Grade Principal.. 2,000 

4. H. S. Teachers.. 9,095 

5. Bast S. Teachers 5,200 

6. West S. Teachers 6,075 

7. Janitors : 

a. High School .. 1,000 

b. West Side 700 

c. Bast Side 600 

C. Office 250 

1. Postage $ 25 

2. Stationery 75 

3. Printing 150 

D. School Supplies 2,240 

1. Drawing $ 200 

2. Penmanship 200 

3. Agriculture 100 

4. Man. Training.... 300 

5. Cooking 200 

6. Sewing 250 

7. Chemistry 100 

S. Phvsics 100 

9. Phvs. Geog 125 

10. Biology 100 

11. Primary 200 

12. Janitor 75 

13. Cravon 30 

14. T. paper 35 

15. Theme paper 100 

16. Disinfectants .... 50 

17. Floor oil 75 

E. Apparatus 1,850 

1. Typewriters $ 800 

2. Library 300 

3. Maps and globes 150 

4. Dictionaries 100 

5. Incidentals 500 

F. Repairs 750 

1. H. S. Roof $ 250 

2. West Side Roof.. 500 

G. New Equipment 550 

1. Drawing tables .. $ 175 

2. Sewing tables .... 100 

3. Commercial 100 

4. Stools, 3 doz 75 

5. Playground 100 



U. 8. Bureau of Education Standard 
Classifications. 

.. Administration $2,200 

1. Superintendent.... $1,800 

2. Clerk and census 300 

3. General expense.. 100 

;. Instruction 25,875 

1. Salaries $23,620 

Principals 3,250 

Teachers 20,370 

2. Educa. supplies.. 2,255 
Office : 

Stationery ..$ 75 
Postage .... 25 
Printing .... 150 
Drawing .... 200 
Penmanship 200 

Agric 100 

Man. Tr 200 

Dom. Sc 200 

Dom. Art.... 250 

Chem 100 

Plivsics 100 

Phv. Geog... 125 

Biology 100 

Primary .... 200 
Crayon, Pa- 
per, etc 130 

;. Operation of School Plant 4,795 

1. Janitors' sal $2,300 

2. Janitors' supplies 235 

a. Floor oil. ...$75 

b. Disinfectant 50 

c. T. paper .... 35 

d. Other 75 

3. Fuel 1,725 

4. Water 100 

5. Light 350 

6. Phone 75 

. Maintenance of School Plant 1,000 

1. Rep.airs to build- 

ings and upkeep 

of grounds $ 750 

2. Insurance 250 

. Library 300 

1. Books $ 300 

. Outlay — Capital 
Acquisition 

1. Land 

2. New buildings 

3. Equipment, new 

buildings 

4. Alterations, old 

buildings 

5. Equipment, old 

buildings 

6. Educational Equipment. ... 2,100 
. Other payments : 

1. Interest $4,750 

2. Debt reduction.... 5,000 

3. Sinking fund. 



ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



49 



Summary. 



A. Fixed expenses $12,660 

B. Salaries 27,720 

C. Office supplies 250 

D. School supplies :. 2,240 

E. Apparatus 1,850 

F. Repairs 750 

G. New equipment 550 

$46,020 



1. Administration $ 2,200 

2. Instruction 25,875 

3. Operation of school plant 4,795 

4. Maintenance of school plant.. 1,000 

5. Library 300 

6. Outlay 2,100 

7. Other payments 9,750 

$46,020 



8. PERPETUAL INVENTORY OF EQUIPMENT NEEDED 

Perhaps the most satisfactory way to keep track of the equipment 
in a school system is to make out a separate card for each class of 
equipment owned and file the card according to buildings and depart- 
ments. Whenever new classes of equipment are acquired, new cards can 
be made; if additional pieces are secured they can be entered on existing 
cards and if pieces are disposed of, lost or destroyed, the fact can be 
noted on the cards so that at any given moment the equipment cards 
show the quantity and value of the equipment on hand and all that is 
necessary is to check up the cards by actual count of the property on 
hand to establish the accuracy of the records. The equipment card 
shown in Table Twenty-three, page 50, is recommended. 



9. ANNUAL REPORT 



It has been pointed out that one of the functions of the Board of 
Education is to bring the needs and policies of the school system before 
the people of the district. There is a danger, which in several cities 
in Oregon has developed into a fact, that the people of a community may 
fail to support the policies of the school board because they have been 
kept in ignorance of the actual situation. The citizens of a modern city 
need to know the facts regarding their school system, what has been 
accomplished and what remains to be achieved. Intelligent appreciation 
and cooperation in the long run is a matter of education involving a 
knowledge of the same facts which sway the school board in its decisions. 

Probably the best way of supplying this knowledge is by means of 
an annual or biennial report. This may be published as a separate tract 
or through the columns of the press. It is not necessary to publish a 
detailed account of the system each year, but certain phases of the 
system may be discussed in succeeding years. As the system grows in 
size the volume of the annual repoi't may be more extended. The publi- 
cation of the report of the present survey committee should prove to be 
sufficiently extensive in the matter of publicity for a period of two 
years. The school board deserves commendation for supporting the 
present survey and for presenting the report of the committee to the 
public. 



50 



CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY OF 













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ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 51 

CHAPTER VIII 
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 

Careful perusal of the foregoing pages will disclose the fact that 
for the most part the sui-vey committee has approved the Ashland 
public schools. The chief purpose of the survey was, however, not 
merely to indicate whether or not a favorable state of affairs as a 
whole existed, but rather to suggest proper points of departure for 
constructive improvements. Suggestions of this nature have been made 
throughout the report. It now remains to summarize the more important 
recommendations of the committee. It is not urged that all of these 
must necessarily be put immediately into operation, but it seems reason- 
able to expect that no great length of time shall elapse before, under the 
discreet direction of the superintendent of schools, authorized and sup- 
ported by the school board, the majority of the suggestions of the 
committee shall enter into actual school practice. The committee makes 
the following recommendations: 

1. That an outside room be provided for the manual training classes, 
to be built largely by the work of the boys themselves, and that a larger 
room be provided for the sewing work in order that the girls may work 
at tables. 

2. That efforts be made to secure by loan or gift a larger collection 
of good pictures, mural decorations, and pieces of sculpture. 

3. That doors or screens be placed in front of the toilets in the 
grade schools. 

4. That 68 degrees be established as the standard temperature of 
the school rooms instead of 70, and that the halls at the East school 
be warmed. 

5. That vigorous physical exercise be required in each grade room 
for at least five minutes during each session, or a run in the open air 
for an equal length of time. 

6. That the main effort of the Ashland school authorities be directed 
toward strong courses in the standard academic branches with knowledge 
of fundamentals, formation of character, development of disciplined mind, 
and acquisition of general culture as the chief educational aims, but 
that physical and industrial education be considered sufficiently funda- 
mental and important as to demand thoroughly substantial support. 

7. That the aim of the manual training work be made more voca- 
tional, and that home gardens and poultry-raising clubs be organized 
under school supervision. 

8. That prospective rural school teachers take the high school 
teachers' training course, but that prospective city elementary and high 
school teachers be advised to take their professional training later in 
higher educational institutions. 

9. That more attention be given to the fundamentals of punctuation 
and capitalization. 

10. That classes in penmanship be reorganized on the basis of ability, 
and that a large share of the time now given to the best one-fourth of 
the pupils of the upper elementary grades be devoted to the poorest 
one-fourth. 



52 CONSTRUCTIVE SURVEY, ASHLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

11. That good writing be made a prerequisite for admission to book- 
keeping courses. 

12. That more emphasis be placed upon silent reading. 

13. That a teacher or supervisor of physical education be employed. 

14. That a greater length of tenure of position be maintained in the 
high school teaching staff. 

15. That departmentalization be extended to include music and draw- 
ing above the third grade. 

16. That more supervision be given to high school teaching. 

17. That the teachers keep more detailed records of plans and 
progress. 

18. That efforts be made to locate by use of quantitative tests the 
various abilities of individual pupils in the fundamentals, and that 
individual and auxiliary teaching be guided to a greater extent by such 
standards. 

19. That the present study of conditions of retardation, promotion, 
and elimination be continued with the view of learning and ameliorating 
as far as possible the individual causes which prevail against backward 
and absent children. 

20. That a more efficient system of ordering, purchasing, and record- 
ing supplies and equipment, and of accounting for other expenditures 
be adopted. 

21. That a standard payroll be adopted. 

22. That the offices of school clerk and secretary of the superin- 
tendent be combined. 

23. That the budget classifications recommended by the United 
States Bureau of Education be adopted. 

24. That an annual budget and report be published either in the 
newspapers or as a separate document. 



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